That's What You Get
by julien-schu
Summary: In which Ivan Braginski courts Gilbert Beilschmidt for reasons unknown; High School AU. Complete.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 1**

Ivan Braginski read the e-mail again, hoping that he had somehow misread it the first time. Disappointed that he did not, he closed his eyes and sighed. There was just no way he could hold it off any longer.

He needed to find one immediately. And not just any person he could grab off the street; he had a certain set of requirement s to fulfill. Hair colour had to be _just_ so. Height too, was a factor. And then of course, he must not forget, overall complexion was important as well. Attitude – must _not_ forget attitude. Willingness did not matter much, but would be a plus. Actually, the hell with it, he would make his poor victim – no, _candidate,_ yes, that was the word, go through with his plans, any protests or objections be damned.

Because he was Ivan Braginski, damn it. And if Ivan really wanted something, forget that moving mountains _bullshit,_ he could make the Greater Caucasus Range get up and do the _Barynya_ if he thought it would be fun.

Ivan logged out from the computer and walked out of the library, ready to begin his first step towards reaching his goal. He needed to find a few, or at least, one suitable candidate. He certainly did not have much time before–

He shuddered. No, best not to think about it. Now now, Ivan, he chided himself quietly, focus on the task at hand. How should he go about it, yes? Wandering around school and simply looking at people did not seem like the best way. Perhaps he should just head for some of the places in school where the students liked to hang out and see if he could find a candidate there, or at least some inspiration.

A few moments later found him in one such place, listening to some of the people around him. One particular conversation between a tall blond and a brown-haired student of equal height tugged his interest. He was not exactly eavesdropping either, for the other two students were just talking so loudly that he simply could not help but hear their conversation.

Francis. Ivan could never remember what was his last name. Senior. Too blond, too loud, and too _French _for Ivan's liking, and that scraggly growth on his face certainly did not help things along. Strangely enough, he had quite a following in school for reasons Ivan could not fathom.

The other guy – what was his name again, oh yes – Antonio. Also a senior. Now that one was admittedly a rather nice-looking young man, but he was too dark, too green-eyed and far too _happy_ for Ivan's requirements.

Antonio shook his head. "He got turned down _again?_ What is it now, the thirteenth time?"

"Fifteenth. You'd think he'd given up by now, but _no."_

"Well Francis, he is persistent!"

"By that you mean that he's just too dumb to quit."

"Maybe he'll have better luck this year."

"He'd better. Having virgin boy interrupting me on one of _my_ dates with one of his stupid phone calls is getting more than just a bit annoying."

Ivan's ears perked up. Oh? Now this was rather interesting. Apparently this particular individual those two were discussing was of... unspotted virtue? Would this fit into his scheme of things? A quick moment of speculation decided that yes, it did.

Antonio laughed. "I'll get Gilbert to hang out with me the next time you go on a date."

"Thanks."

The rest of the conversation then moved on to Antonio and someone called Lovino, but Ivan quickly lost interest in that. He did however, remain curious about this Gilbert. The name certainly sounded familiar. Oh yes, now he remembered.

He smiled in satisfaction. Yes, Gilbert would do quite nicely indeed.

--x--

If Gilbert had paid a bit more attention, he would not have promptly ran smack into someone as he went around the corner.

"Watch where you're going!" he instinctively snapped, even though the collision was not exactly the other person's fault.

"I am sorry," said the other guy, who made an odd little gesture with his hands, palms out, as if indicating that he had meant no harm. When Gilbert realised that those hands were a smidge bigger than his – why the hell was the guy wearing gloves? – not to mention that their owner was taller and bigger than he was, he looked up to find a tall young man with strong, Slavic features and pale blond hair, almost as pale as his own.

Not that it actually mattered that the guy was taller and bigger. No. He could take Tall Freak down, no problem. Oh yeah.

"You are Gilbert, yes? Gilbert Beilschmidt?" Tall Freak asked.

Well that was nice, Gilbert thought. At least the guy's heard of him and of course, the awesomeness that came with it – then again, who wouldn't? Oh right, those girls who kept turning him down when he asked them out. He mentally shoved the beginnings of a slump in his mood into a dark corner and gave it a few hefty kicks for good measure. "Yeah... oh." He blinked in recognition. "You're that new Russian exchange student. Bragiwhatsisface."

The pale giant beamed in pleasure, even though Gilbert had just mangled his name. "Yes. Braginski. Ivan Braginski." An odd smile appeared on his face. "You have... spunk, yes? Yes, that's it, spunk. Spunk is good."

Gilbert stared at Ivan, puzzled. "Huh?"

"Nothing. I am very sorry, yes. Hope to see you again. And again." With that somewhat odd parting remark, he waved cheerfully with an equally odd smile and turned to leave. He had taken two, three steps before he stopped and looked behind him. "Gilbert?"

"What?"

"Actually, I will see you after school, yes? Please wait for me at main gate." Not waiting for a reply, Ivan smiled that strange smile and left.

--x--

Ivan was in such an elated mood that he found himself almost skipping back to the library. To run into Gilbert Beilschmidt like that must be a sign! Oh, and the guy even recognised him! Yes, it was a sign indicating that Gilbert was the perfect candidate, and he could put the next part of his plan into action.

He had done a bit of background checking – that was the phrase they used in those police shows on TV, if he remembered correctly – on Gilbert. When his name was mentioned by those two other seniors, the only thing Ivan could remember about him was that one occasion when Gilbert came into one of his classes, looking for Francis. It was impossible to forget someone with that hair – and those eyes!

One good thing about Ivan's imposing appearance was that it practically guaranteed him answers when he asked around. Let's see, Ivan thought.

Gilbert Beilschmidt. Senior. Obviously of German heritage. Has a younger brother, Ludwig, who was often mistaken as the elder sibling due to him being taller and bulkier then his senior. Was always hanging out with Francis and Antonio, or sometimes another senior called Arthur. Plays the drums. Gets into trouble at least once a week on principle. And more importantly, not taken.

"Gilbert? Oh, you mean that guy with the freaky eyes? Well, he is kinda cute, but...."

Freaky? He did not think those eyes were freaky. They were a nice shade of reddish purple, he thought, almost as nice as his own paler ones. Some of the more brave girls in the school had shyly complimented him on his violet eyes, before their courage dissipated and then they fled, the nervous wrecks.

"But?" he had prompted the girl.

"The moment he opens his mouth – _ooh!_ He just turns you off, okay? I swear, his stupid ego is bigger than the size of the planet."

The few other people he asked basically had similar reactions, and they also confirmed that yes, Gilbert is not going out with anyone, and no, seriously doubt that he ever will, not with _that _attitude.

Ivan begged to differ, but he _liked_ that attitude.

When he first arrived at the school under the exchange program, it was hard for him to make friends. For some reason everyone found him more than just a bit intimidating and they were rather reluctant to talk to him. At first he thought that they just needed time to get used to him – or perhaps it was just his accent – but until today he could barely hold a conversation that lasted more than five minutes before the whole thing just turned uncomfortable and awkward. Even the teachers acted the same way; he would purposely skip a class, yet none of them dared to reprimand him. He was skipping one right _now_, choosing to go back to the library to use the computer, but the librarian and the few teachers around only smiled nervously at him, probably thinking that at least he was doing work in the library, instead of, oh, raping and pillaging or something.

Gilbert was the lone individual he had encountered in the school whom did not seem to be afraid of him. When they had collided in the hall earlier, Ivan was delighted that the other boy had not found his superior height intimidating the least, choosing to glare up that ruler-straight German nose at him.

Chuckling softly to himself, Ivan sat at one of the computer terminals and logged in. He replied to the e-mail he had received earlier, choosing his words carefully. Satisfied, he sent it off and then decided that he might as well use the spare time – why bother going back to class now? – to do some more research on local dating practices.

Now then, what to type into Google, yes?

--x--

Gilbert furiously copied down the few remaining lines from the notebook – with just a few alterations to make it different enough, of course, he was not _that _stupid – before he shoved the notebook back into its proper place in Arthur's backpack. Arthur would throw a fit if he caught Gilbert copying his homework again; not that he was afraid of the little guy, but getting caught would mean Arthur taking his backpack everywhere he went. And Gilbert certainly did not want that.

As usual, he turned his homework in without any problems; his handwriting was immaculate, which gave the impression that he actually spent time on it, unlike some of the other chicken-scratching morons in the class who almost always got reprimanded for doing last-minute copying.

He couldn't wait for school to be over so he could head off to the local music store with Antonio. Antonio wanted to get some new strings, while Gilbert wanted to tag along so he could drool (well, not literally, he was too awesome to do that) over the Ludwig Epic Modular drum kit the store had on display. He was still mentally picturing the gorgeous seven-piece chrome and blue kit in his head (those awesome twin kick drums combined would knock down walls! Oh god_ oh god!)_ when school was over and he made his way to the gate to meet Antonio.

He was so lost in thought that he nearly jumped in surprise when he felt a hand on his shoulder. "Shit! Antonio, don't scare me–"

"Ah, sorry, but I'm not this Antonio," interrupted that Tall Freak from this afternoon, beaming. "Anyway, I am pleased that you agreed to wait for me, yes?"

"Huh? Look here, Blotski–"

"Braginski," he corrected. "But please, call me Ivan."

"Yeah, whatever. Look Ivan, I wasn't waiting for–"

"Gilbert!"

Gilbert groaned. Was anyone actually going to let him finish a sentence today? He turned to find a smiling Antonio heading towards them.

"Oh, hi there!" Antonio greeted Ivan, who politely smiled back.

"Hello."

Cheerful as always, Antonio said, "Gilbert and I are going to grab something to eat before we head off to that new music store. Want to come?" he offered, totally oblivious to the not-too-discreet kick Gilbert gave him in the shin.

"No, it's okay. I just want to tell Gilbert something before we all go."

Antonio and Gilbert exchanged a puzzled look.

"Tell me what?" Gilbert asked.

Ivan smiled and placed his hands on Gilbert's shoulders. "That I would like to ask you out, yes?"

Gilbert's jaw dropped.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 2**

To say that his friend was dumbstruck was an understatement, Antonio observed in a rare moment of astuteness. Gilbert's brain was probably screaming something along the lines of _'Befehl oder Dateiname nicht gefunden' _on loop,which would explain why he was just standing there doing absolutely _nothing_ except for staring at Ivan and doing a very good impression of a hyperactive goldfish.

Then again, Antonio was absolutely certain that this was the first time _anyone_ asked Gilbert out. It had _always_ been the other way around, and the answer was always in the negative. He could not really blame his friend for not knowing how to react. After all, as far as Antonio knew, Gilbert's actual dating experience was nil and what little he knew about the whole thing he had learnt from Francis' stories, or from secretly playing those dating sims Kiku lent to Ludwig in exchange for German films – not exactly reliable information.

His hands still on Gilbert's shoulders, Ivan smiled and said, "If you do not object, I will pick you up at eight tonight. We will go see a movie. I think you would like that. Oh? You do not say anything, so that means you do not object, yes? Okay. See you tonight then."

By the time Gilbert had recovered enough of his composure to snap out of his trance-like state, Ivan had already disappeared from view. That did not stop Gilbert from trying to go after the Russian, and Antonio barely managed to yank his reckless friend back just in time to prevent him from being hit by a car when he tried to rush across the street.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Gilbert grumbled.

"Would you rather end up a broken and bloody mess on the street? Your brother would kill me."

"Ah shit, now where did that freak go?" Gilbert turned this way and that, trying to spot the Russian.

"Come on, let's go. You'll see him tonight anyway, on your date!"

"I'm not going to go out with him!" Gilbert yelled in reply, startling some of the other students around them, who then could not help but stare at the ruckus.

Cheerfully obtuse to Gilbert's protests, Antonio dragged his friend away, one hand firmly around Gilbert's arm while the other reached for his cellular phone. "Let's go and get something to eat!" he cheerfully suggested, at the same time texting Francis, asking the other student to meet them at their destination.

"Are you listening to me, dumbass?"

"Relax, we can discuss your first date later over a sandwich or something. I'm hungry!"

"For the last time, I'm _not_ going out with that Russian freak!" Gilbert growled, then proceeded to call Antonio a bunch of obscenities in German. Antonio endured the verbal abuse with a smile and an occasional nod, having developed an immunity thanks to his long friendship with Gilbert to be upset with his friend's behaviour.

Fifteen minutes later found them both sitting at a table in Antonio's favourite pizza place, it being his current favourite due to the sole reason that his latest crush worked there after school. Antonio had even forgotten about his original intention of going to the music store, his friend's current predicament more important than some new Ernie Ball strings for his guitar.

"What do you want?" a surly-looking Lovino Vargas growled, slamming the menus on the table. Antonio sighed. Lovino was just so _adorable_ when he was annoyed. And since he was in a sullen mood all the time, that meant he was permanently cute.

"To punch this idiot's lights out," Gilbert grumbled, glaring at Antonio.

Lovino shrugged. "That's a choice I can agree with. What's stopping you?"

"I'm paying," Antonio explained.

"So punch him _after_ you're done."

Antonio laughed. "Just the usual, Lovi. And a Coke for him."

"Whatever." Lovino retrieved the menus and left, muttering how he should not have bothered with them.

"How about a side order of a kiss?" Antonio called out, chuckling. Lovino gave him the finger in reply.

"Gilbert!" Francis called out dramatically as he rushed into the restaurant. "Ooh! I heard it from Antonio, but I need to hear it from you! Is it true?" he said, sliding into the seat next to Gilbert. "Did that Ivan ask you out?"

"Yeah, he did, but I'm not–"

"That's just wonderful!" Francis cried, giving his friend a bone-crushing hug.

"Listen here, you stupid French drama queen–"

"Don't worry, my dear Gilbert! Your good friend Francis will help you every step of the way!" Francis grabbed Gilbert's hands and held them up as he continued, "Antonio and I, we will make your first date with Ivan a success~!"

"I'm not going out with Ivan!" Gilbert yelled as he stood up, glaring at Francis.

The resulting silence in the restaurant was downright uncomfortable. Practically all the other patrons – mostly students from school – were staring at the trio's table. From the looks on their faces, some of them obviously recognised the three seniors, and quite a number started whispering among themselves.

Francis threw Antonio a look. Antonio chuckled; he knew that look and what was coming next.

"Oh, all right," Francis said, with a nonchalant shrug. "I should have known better. It's something to be expected from you, anyway."

"What?" Gilbert growled, rising towards Francis' bait.

"That you're just hopeless. Seriously, I think this is why all those girls refuse to go out with you. It's because they already know that you're too hopeless and pathetic to handle a date with any of them."

Antonio decided to add a few things of his own. Smiling, he picked up from where Francis left off. "And here you have someone actually willing and not to mention making the first move to go out with you, and you throw that away? Man, looks like you realised it yourself."

"Hopeless."

_"Pitiful."_

"Fine! I'll go out with Ivan! I'll show you that I can handle one stupid date!" Gilbert announced before he stormed out of the restaurant in a fury, leaving more confused people whispering in his wake.

Francis sighed. "And he calls _me_ a drama queen?"

--x--

"Hey Ludwig!" Francis greeted, while Antonio was noisily dragging a protesting Gilbert up the stairs, stopping only to give a quick wave. "How are you? Oh, don't bother making dinner for your brother, he's got a hot date tonight!"

Ludwig blinked in confusion. "Date?"

Francis checked his watch. "Oops, look at the time. We need to get him ready!" The senior rushed upstairs and into Gilbert's room.

Shaking his head, Ludwig followed after him and knocked on the door. "Gilbert?" he called out. "Are you sure you don't want any dinner–"

"Stop it or I'll fucking knock you out!"

Ludwig froze. That was Gilbert's voice.

"Antonio, hold his arms! That's it, keep him still!"

"Hey, get off me! Francis, don't you _dare _touch me there – _aaaaah!"_

The mental klaxons in Ludwig's head made loud _WHOOP WHOOP_ noises, and he wisely backed away from the door, shuddering as he went back downstairs and into the kitchen. Yes, Gilbert probably did not want dinner, like Francis said. Just concentrate on that. Try not think or imagine what on earth Antonio and Francis were doing to him in that room. No dinner for Gilbert. Focus on that.

He managed to do so for roughly twenty minutes or so before he decided, oh screw it, he needed to get back up there; what if those two idiots were really molesting his brother or something?

He heard muffled sounds of scuffling and shouts of, "Stop squirming!" and "Gilbert, you'll ruin all the work I did on your hair!" and was about to kick the door open when Antonio opened it.

"Ta-da!" the young man announced with a big grin.

Gilbert was sitting on his bed, a scowl on his face. His hair was not the messy mop of platinum blond Ludwig was accustomed to seeing. Instead it was artfully styled into a seemingly careless, effortlessly tousled yet sexy look that Ludwig had only seen on stars on TV and knew was almost impossible to create without hiring a very expensive hairstylist – or in this case, having Francis as a friend.

And Gilbert's clothes – well, they were all indeed Gilbert's, but Ludwig had never seen his brother wearing them in _that_ combination before. Black jeans, white button-up shirt – the Iron Cross Gilbert insisted on wearing wherever he went stood out nicely against the white hue – and that jacket; his brother looked more than just presentable, he looked... looked...

"Gilbert, you... you actually look _nice,"_ Ludwig blurted.

Francis clapped his hands in delight. "See? I told you so! Oh no, it's almost eight! Hurry, we need to get you downstairs. Ivan will be here any minute!"

"Ivan?" Ludwig repeated as the trio squeezed past him out the door.

"Your brother's date," Antonio explained. Right on cue the doorbell rang, and they all hurried downstairs, dragging Gilbert with them.

--x--

Ivan checked the address one last time before he rang the doorbell. It was not hard to obtain Gilbert's address; apparently almost everyone in school knew where he lived, it was just that no one really wanted to go there. The only people who went there willingly were his few friends, or friends of his brother Ludwig.

The door opened and a tall, well-built blond stood in the doorway. This must be Gilbert's younger brother, Ivan decided. "I am Ivan. Is Gilbert here?" he asked politely.

The blond nodded and a startled Ivan suddenly found himself with an armful of Gilbert, who was pushed out the door by Francis and Antonio, both of them snickering. "Have fun!" Francis called out mischievously before he slammed the door shut. Gilbert growled, pushed himself away from Ivan and turned to give the door a hefty kick, shouting something in German.

"Hello," Ivan greeted.

"Huh?" Gilbert turned around. "Oh yeah. Hi."

"You look really nice," Ivan complimented. Those dating advice websites said it was a must to give your date a compliment, especially if it was your first date. And Gilbert _did _look very nice, Ivan thought. He certainly was less... hooligan-like, yes? Perhaps Gilbert did look forward to this date, since he clearly took some pains with his appearance. It almost made Ivan feel guilty that he was only dressed in a simple sweater and jeans, and his favourite scarf.

"Yeah, whatever. Come on, let's just go."

"Ah, yes. Please, this way," Ivan said, leading his date to his car.

"The car's yours?" Gilbert asked when he climbed inside.

Ivan shook his head. "It is Mr. Winter's." When Gilbert looked at him, he explained, "Mr. Winter is my host family for the student exchange programme. He said that I could use his car provided I take good care of it. He is not home most of the time anyway, so I could drive it every day if I wanted."

"Man, I wish I could get one," Gilbert mumbled.

"Why don't you?" Ivan asked as he started the engine.

Gilbert shrugged. "Am saving up for something else. So what movie are we going to see?"

"That new action film that just opened yesterday, yes? I thought it looked interesting," Ivan answered cheerfully as he drove. "Unless of course, you would prefer to see something else?"

"What else is playing?" When Ivan told him, Gilbert replied, "Oh fuck no, I'm not some stupid simpering girl who screams at horror movies or gushes over some stupid romance flick!"

Ivan made a mental note of that outburst. Do not take Gilbert to see horror or romance films, yes? "Very well, we stick to watching action movie. So how are you?"

"Annoyed and pissed off at my so-called friends, so this movie had better a damned good one."

"I see. Good, good!"

"Huh?"

"You answered honestly! I do not like it how the people here always say 'I am fine' when I ask that question, even though it is very obvious that they are not fine, yes?"

Gilbert stared at him. "You're weird."

"No," Ivan cheerfully replied, "I am Russian."

--x--

So far, this first date business, Gilbert decided, was not too bad after all. Francis and Antonio certainly made it seem like it was a lot more complicated; that would teach him to listen to those two idiots again. He did pretty well, he thought; Ivan seemed to be very happy with his company, and found most of his part of the conversation amusing. Then again, it was to be expected; he was awesome, after all.

The movie they watched was pretty good too, which put him in a better mood compared to how he was feeling when he left the house. The fact that Ivan paid for their tickets, drinks and popcorn certainly was a plus. At least someone in school appreciated his awesomeness, even though it had to be a Russian guy who talked a bit funny.

Heck, he was such in a good mood that when Ivan asked him to explain a few things about the movie as they left the theatre, the Russian having some problems understanding some of the slang, he readily obliged. In fact, they were both too engrossed in discussing the movie that he never noticed that damned telephone pole and literally walked into it, spanging himself as hard as possible right in the face.

One thing – just _one,_ damn it! – Gilbert decided that he liked about Ivan, it was how the Russian never laughed at him, or even if Ivan did, kept it quietly so he would not hear.

Francis and Antonio would be in hysterics by now if they were here, while Arthur would likely be giggling like a loon. Hell, even his boring, goody-two-shoes little brother would probably let out a snicker or two.

Not Ivan. He just looked at Gilbert with a genuinely concerned expression. "Are you all right?" Not understanding Gilbert's muffled replies, Ivan gently pulled Gilbert's hands away from his face. "Let me take a look."

Why was he even letting Ivan fuss over him while making those ridiculous cooing noises anyway? Oh right. Because his nose hurt like hell and he could hardly see anything with those tears (of manly pain!) in his eyes, that's why.

"I do not think your nose is broken," Ivan announced, satisfied. "And there is no blood, so it should be okay, yes?"

Gilbert mumbled some obscenities in German under his breath.

Ivan gave him a puzzled look. "Gilbert, you are very cute, yes, but I do not understand what you're saying."

He froze. Did Ivan just call him cute? _Very cute,_ even? No one called him cute, not since he was a five-year-old who dragged his Mr. Bunny plushie wherever he went. Fortunately, his inability to make an appropriate response to Ivan's comment was saved by his stomach, which made a loud, rumbling noise. A trifle embarrassing, but hell, he had already walked into a telephone pole a minute ago, so screw it.

"Oh, hungry? Ah, do you want to go and get some pizza?"

Gilbert shrugged, trying to act casual. "Pizza sounds good."

--x--

"Hey, Francis! They're back!" Antonio announced.

"This early? Oh well, it is only their first date."

"Shh!"

Francis and Antonio tackled their friend as soon as he stepped inside the house. "Well? How was it?" Antonio asked, grinning.

"It was okay, now just get off me!"

"You were pathetic, I bet," Francis teased.

"Hell no, I was awesome!" Gilbert declared.

"Wait, just who is this Ivan person anyway? And Gilbert, why did you agree to go out with him if you knew nothing about him in the first place?" Ludwig objected. Francis and Antonio had briefly explained to him the circumstances of the date during Gilbert's absence.

Francis sighed. "Ludwig, just because you've decided to guard _your_ virtue," he complained, while Ludwig sputtered and turned a bright red, "it doesn't mean you ought to guard your brother's."

"Yeah, just because you've got a stick up your ass, doesn't mean you shouldn't let Gilbert get a different kind of stick up _his!"_

The other three young men stared at Antonio in a mixture of surprise and horror, plus a touch of amusement on the part of Francis. "What?" Antonio said in all innocence.

Gilbert let out a howl of rage and lunged for him, but Antonio was rescued from certain death by a quick-thinking Francis, who promptly yanked him out of Gilbert's way. Ludwig quickly grabbed his brother, restraining him, but from the furious look from the younger boy's face it was clear that he would like to punch Antonio a few times as well – something which Francis could see happening if Antonio made another remark like the one just now.

Definitely time to leave, Francis decided. "Okay, see you tomorrow in school! Bye, you two!" Francis said loudly amidst the cursing in German as he tugged Antonio by the collar out of the Beilschmidt residence. Antonio smiled and waved goodbye, still clueless as to why Gilbert was angry with him.

"What's Gilbert so mad about?" he asked.

Francis rolled his eyes. "God, I don't know how you made it this far with that thick skull of yours. Just don't say something stupid like that again when those two are around."

"What? It was stupid? But I thought it was funny," Antonio complained.

Francis threw his hand around Antonio's shoulders and gave his friend a squeeze. "It was," he replied, snickering.

* * *

**Additional note:**

_Befehl oder Dateiname nicht gefunden – _bad command or file name


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 3**

Ivan Braginski was somewhat puzzled. He thought his date with Gilbert last night was quite a success; Gilbert seemed to have enjoyed the movie and appreciated the pizza, and apart from that one occasion in the car where he called Ivan weird, the other boy did not seem to mind his company.

So why was Gilbert avoiding him? Well, perhaps not actually avoiding, but surely, he had expected Gilbert to say hello to him in school at the very least. But no, he had not seen Gilbert at all since this morning.

Perhaps he should just find another candidate? No, he decided after some thought. He had spent some time this morning in the school library looking at the student database – good thing his cousin Eduard taught him a few things about computers – scrolling through the countless photographs of the students in the school, and no one else seemed suitable enough. None, but for Gilbert.

Perhaps he had done something inappropriate during the date, or made a mistake he was not aware of?

Maybe he should have kissed Gilbert goodnight after all? But those dating advice websites said that it may not be too appropriate for a first date, especially if you knew nothing much about each other.

Then he smiled as something occurred to him. Ah, Gilbert was just likely doing that thing called, playing hard to get, yes? He read a little about that in those advice websites. Funny, Gilbert did not seem to be the type, but come to think of it, he had been a surprise from the start. He was certainly not frightened of Ivan; he did not refuse when Ivan had asked him out, and he even then took care to dress appropriately, indicating that he actually intended to go see the movie with the Russian. Playing hard to get, that must be it.

So if Gilbert was playing hard to get, that meant Ivan should chase after him. And then, if he did not play along when Ivan actually caught him, well, Ivan never was the type who could take no for an answer.

Now, where would Gilbert be after school? Ivan sighed. He had forgotten to ask for Gilbert's number last night, and the student database did not list down phone numbers. Wait, yesterday Antonio mentioned something about going to the music store, and Ivan knew that Gilbert did play the drums. Maybe he should check that store after school. In the meantime, he should read up on a few things.

Oh, these local dating rules, they are so very complicated, yes?

--x--

"So what happened at the movie?" Francis asked.

Gilbert rolled his eyes before he replied, "We watched it and ate popcorn."

"And after the movie?"

"We went to get a pizza."

"And _after _the pizza?"

"He dropped me off home?"

_"And then?"_

"And then you two idiots mauled me inside my own house!"

Both Antonio and Francis simultaneously groaned before smacking their foreheads with their palms.

"Here I am, trying my best to help my friend to improve his non-existent love life and what does he do?" Francis let out an exaggerated sigh. "The boy, he has not an ounce of romance in his veins!" he complained. "Gilbert, you are so hopeless!"

"What is wrong with you, you stupid drama queen? I wasn't hopeless, I was awesome!" Gilbert retorted. "And why the hell are you two making such a big fuss over this like a bunch of stupid chicks anyway?"

"There, there," Antonio said to Francis, whom by now was making sobbing noises. He patted Francis' back, trying to comfort his friend. He could almost understand how Francis felt. And people called _him _dense.

"How can you call yourself awesome if _nothing_ happened?" Francis groaned. "And after all that work I did on your hair! And your clothes! Do you have any idea how hard it was to find anything decent in your wardrobe? All that effort and for what? Nothing!"

Gilbert snorted. "Fine, he said that I was very cute. There, you _happy _now?"

Francis paused in mid-sob. "Wait, he said what? That you were _cute?"_ Seeing Gilbert nod, he let out a long sigh of relief. "There's hope for you yet! We should plan for your next date, perhaps you will ask–"

"Well don't bother, because I'm not going out with him again, dumbass."

"Why not?" Antonio asked.

"Look, I just went out with him to show you guys I could handle one stupid date, okay? Besides, I want to date girls. _Girls._ Does that Russian look like a girl to any of you?"

"No, but he _is_ the only one who's actually willing to go out with you. I say just go ahead and go out with him," Francis replied.

"Hey! Are you calling me desperate?"

Francis sniffed haughtily. "No, not desperate. Just _pitiful."_

Antonio caught Gilbert's hands just before they could reach Francis' neck. "Okay guys, why don't we just drop this for now?" he said. "Or at least, keep it down before we get thrown out of the store."

"Fine."

--x--

Ivan felt pleased with himself. He had guessed correctly; yes, Gilbert had gone to the local music store with his friends after school. The three students were inside and Francis and Gilbert seemed to be arguing about something. Antonio said something to both of them and then the trio separated and made their way into different sections of the store.

Gilbert had gone to one section of the store to look at a particular drum kit on display. Ivan did not know anything about drums, but it was obvious that the chrome and blue kit Gilbert was admiring was gorgeous, as well as expensive. He was looking at it so intently that he did not notice Ivan walking towards him.

"Hello," Ivan greeted, making Gilbert nearly jump in surprise.

"Shit! Don't startle me like that!"

"I didn't see you at school today," Ivan stated.

"Huh? I didn't see _you_ when I went to look for Francis this morning. You have Art History with him, right?"

Ivan brightened. Gilbert had wanted to see him after all! Ivan just happened to skip that particular class to go to the library.

"Oh, and uh, thanks for the movie. And the pizza and stuff."

"You're welcome," Ivan replied, beaming. "Would you like to go out again sometime? Maybe we can see another movie. Or do something else."

Gilbert stared at him. "What?"

Ivan nodded. This must be part of the playing hard to get process, yes? Now what was he supposed to do – oh yes, he needed to keep asking Gilbert out to show that he was interested in the other boy. "I am asking you out again. Just like yesterday, yes? Go see movies, eat somewhere, I do not mind paying for everything." When Gilbert gave no reply, Ivan added, "Maybe you are not so sure. I know, why don't we try this for a little while, yes? If you think that you do not want to pursue this after, say, a month? Then I leave you alone. Ok?"

Actually, he would have made Gilbert go on with his idea regardless if the boy agreed or not. But it would not hurt to ask Gilbert first, yes? It would be easier for everyone involved if Gilbert were to do this willingly. Still, there was no response....

He looked at Gilbert with that particular gaze of his that he knew would send full-grown adults running away, whether here or back home in Russia. "Actually, I will not take no for an answer, Gilbert," he said sweetly; however, the look in his eyes was anything but.

Little did Ivan know Gilbert had _completely_ missed that last part of the conversation.

--x--

Gilbert blinked. It certainly was a surprise to see Ivan in the store; he did not seem to be the musical type. And as long as he was here, Gilbert figured that he might as well thank the Russian for the movie last night. He had _some_ manners; it was just that he rarely used them. But Ivan deserved at least a 'thank you', he figured, since it was not everyday that someone he barely knew would treat him to a movie and pizza.

And when Ivan started talking – wait, Ivan wanted to go out with him? _Again?_ And more importantly, would pay for anything and everything? Holy crap. Someone actually thought he was that awesome? Wait, _of course_ he was that awesome!

On one hand, like he mentioned to Francis, he really wanted to go out with a girl. But on the other, having someone pay for his food and entertainment for – what was it again, a month? – would save him a _lot _of money, and he could then maybe, just maybe, finally buy that Epic Modular kit he had been lusting over for a while now–

"Hello? Gilbert?" Ivan said, waving one hand in front of his face.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sure."

"Sure? You agree to go out with me?"

"You deaf or something? I said so, didn't I?"

Ivan clapped his hands once in delight. "You have no idea how happy I am to hear this!" He grabbed Gilbert's shoulders and pulled the other boy into a tight embrace. "This is very good!"

_"Ooof."_

"Oh. Sorry. You can breathe now, yes?"

--x--

Gilbert was bored and restless. He did not feel like hanging out with Francis or Antonio, since those two idiots would undoubtedly tease him about yesterday's incident at the music store. They had spotted Ivan enveloping him in a bear-hug and were making all sorts of rude comments – really loudly – which resulted in having all of them thrown out of the store.

With no Francis or Antonio, that left only Arthur Kirkland, one of the few people in school who acknowledged his awesomeness and thus, did not mind his company. The two had a few common interests, like music and football. Even so, any debates between them regarding England's performance in international football tournaments would usually come to an end with Arthur loudly singing, "Two World Wars and one World Cup, doo-da, doo-da!" while Gilbert would just sputter in response, unable to come up with an appropriate reply.

Both of them became acquainted when Gilbert and his two friends were looking for another guitarist for their band. The whole band thing was Francis' idea when they all first started high school; start a band and become popular overnight! Gilbert had participated with enthusiasm, up to the point he had begged for a drum kit from his grandfather, and only got one on the promise that he would obtain decent grades for a year.

He had managed that particular feat – barely – but they did get the band started. Antonio was a more than decent guitarist, Francis was pretty all right on the bass – and of course, he was just awesome on the drums – but they thought they needed another guitar player. Everyone was more than surprised when 'boring old Arthur' showed up when they held tryouts for the band, and demonstrated that he could play _Cliffs of Dover_ with the skill and proficiency of Eric Johnson himself.

The band idea even sort of worked; Francis and Antonio _did_ become more popular with the girls. Arthur did not care; he just wanted to play guitar with some people every other weekend. As for Gilbert, well, the girls knew him at least, but that was about it. Still, he liked playing the drums too much to give it up.

"Ah, come on!" Gilbert insisted when Arthur refused to his suggestion of going somewhere after school.

"I can't. I need to study for a test tomorrow."

Gilbert made a face at him. "What the hell for? Screw your test, let's go and have some fun."

"Sorry, but some of us actually do care about our academic performance, oh King of Doing His Homework on the Bus," Arthur growled.

"Knock it off, people have stopped calling me that for ages! Besides, now I just–" Gilbert winced. Whoops.

"Just what?" Arthur's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Are you nicking my books to copy my homework again?" he accused.

Gilbert shrugged. "If you didn't see me doing it, then it didn't happen," he replied, then promptly ducked from the clumsily swung fist aimed at his head.

"Fine, be that way. And instead of pestering me to hang out with you after school, why don't you go ask your new boyfriend to take you – _Gilbert? _Are you all right?" Arthur tried to assist his friend, who was making choking noises. His attempts were waved off.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Gilbert gasped out.

"Whatever do you mean? I thought you're going out with that Russian exchange student, Ivan Braginski. Aren't you?"

"Where did you hear that?"

Arthur gave him a puzzled look. "Some people were talking about it this morning. I asked Antonio if it were true, and he said it was."

"I'm going to _kill _that idiot!"

"It would give you something to do after school. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the library." Arthur then left with a quick wave in goodbye.

Gilbert snorted. Great, what was he going to do now? He did not want to go home just yet – not that he would be lonely at home or anything sappy like that – it was just that he had finished his latest video game, and he did not feel like practicing on the drums. Study? He almost laughed out loud. Oh hell, maybe he should just go find Ivan and make the Russian buy him a sandwich somewhere. Ivan did promise to pay for stuff like that, didn't he?

By the time he found Ivan later, the Russian talking to someone, Gilbert was having second thoughts. Free food and entertainment was awesome, true, but did he really want to go on with this crazy idea of Ivan's? If he got tired of the whole thing after a month and called it off, what then? He was unaware that while he was thinking his lower lip was sticking out in a pout, a habit from childhood that he had never been able to break, much to the amusement of Antonio and Francis, who teased him mercilessly about it.

--x--

From the corner of his eye, Ivan thought he saw a familiar figure standing some distance away. A discreet glance – his classmate hardly noticed his shift in attention – confirmed his guess; it was indeed Gilbert. The other boy did not look too happy and Ivan could have sworn that he had a somewhat sulky expression in his face.

Was Gilbert angry with him? That was not possible, since Ivan was sure he had not done anything wrong. He was just talking to his classmate, where was the harm in that?

Of course! Ivan brightened when the answer occurred to him. Gilbert was just jealous, yes? He smiled, creeping the hell out of his conversation partner. He had certainly made the right decision; Gilbert was definitely the perfect candidate after all.

He made his excuses and went to greet his boyfriend – he was allowed to call Gilbert that now, yes? - who flinched slightly and looked away, as if he were embarrassed to be caught staring. How cute.

"Let's go somewhere," Gilbert demanded, "I'm bored."

"I need to run some errands for Mr. Winter," Ivan said in apology, but quickly added at Gilbert's look of disappointment, "but perhaps we can go somewhere for a little while after that. Maybe for coffee? Ice cream?"

Gilbert shrugged. "Sounds good. You're buying, right?"

Ivan laughed. "Of course," he replied.

--x--

It did not take long for Ivan to finish his errands; Gilbert had tagged along silently at first, but after some time he started grumbling on how Ivan took ages to get anything done. Strangely enough, Ivan only smiled at his complaining. Normally when he started complaining, people just told him to shut up.

Maybe this going out with Ivan thing was good for something after all.

"Do you want to do anything tomorrow, Gilbert?" Ivan asked as he paid for their ice creams. Ivan had to get home soon since Mr. Winter needed to use the car, and Gilbert was not in the mood for coffee. So ice cream it was.

"Not really," Gilbert told him. "Why?"

"I don't think I will be able to take the car tomorrow. So it will be hard for us to go anywhere, yes?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll just make you take me somewhere special some other time."

Ivan grinned, then frowned when his phone beeped. He checked his new text message and then apologised, "I am really sorry, but I have to go. Mr. Winter is already at home and wants to use the car."

"Go ahead. Don't worry about dropping me off home, I don't feel like going back yet anyway."

"Okay, okay. Oh, Gilbert?"

"Yeah?"

Ivan leant towards him and with a slow, deliberate gesture that made Gilbert's cheeks burn, ran his forefinger across Gilbert's lower lip. His eyes seemed to darken, and for some reason Gilbert could not help but remain still under that gaze, as Ivan brought his finger to his own lips and licked it. That strange, almost predatory look then disappeared and was replaced by Ivan's usual beaming expression. "You had some ice cream there!" said the Russian brightly.

Gilbert could only stare as Ivan left. _Oh shit._ What the hell did he just get himself into?


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 4**

Gilbert yawned as he climbed up the staircase leading towards the rooftop. The hell with it, he decided; today he was skipping all of his classes in favour of some much-needed sleep. He would have preferred to stay at home and in his nice comfortable bed, but _no,_ his younger brother just had to drag him to school, all the while lecturing him on how important it was to get a decent night's sleep instead of playing some video game well into the wee hours of the morning. It was not his fault that the game was so interesting, and that he could not find any decent places to actually stop and save. Besides, he was the type who liked to finish everything in one sitting anyway.

Ivan had bought it for him last night on their date – if he were not half-asleep, he would have noticed that his cheeks were turning red – when they killed some time in the mall before their movie. He had been torn between buying the game, or saving his money for his dream drum kit. Ivan had noticed him staring at the game in the store and cheerfully bought it with a big smile. Gilbert had protested at first, but Ivan persisted in purchasing the game for him, saying that it was an apology gift for not being able to take him out the other day. Well, if Ivan insisted, who was Gilbert to stop him?

The date was nothing really special anyway. It was just like their first; a movie, and a pizza after that. Francis had taken upon himself to decide on Gilbert's attire again for the date, while Antonio was there to assist him. Not only that, Francis had reorganised Gilbert's entire wardrobe. Gilbert's usual way of choosing what to wear was simply to take whatever was at the top of the pile, and so Francis had rearranged everything so that Gilbert would end up wearing a more than decent outfit if he kept to his usual habit.

Fortunately Ludwig had helped him in throwing his two friends out of the house before Ivan arrived, sparing him yet another round of mortification like on that other night. Ivan had not done anything that creeped him out like that time they went for ice cream either, although the Russian had embraced him and kissed him soundly on both cheeks when Ivan dropped him off home.

"It's normal to do this among friends in Russia!" Ivan had explained with a smile when a very red-faced Gilbert had tried to wriggle free, swearing. "Besides, you and I are now more than just friends, yes?"

Gilbert had checked up on that when he got to his room – bless you, Internet – and Ivan was telling the truth. Apparently Russians in general have a much more different concept of personal space (that sort of explained the ice cream incident) so he would just have to suck it up, although maybe he could get Ivan not to do it in public at least, because it was embarrassing as hell.

He reminded himself to do that later; but now, all he wanted to do was to get some sleep. Once he reached the rooftop, he went to his usual spot. He propped his backpack against the wall, leant back against it and closed his eyes.

--x--

Ivan was not too pleased as he ascended the stairs. Gilbert did not show up to say hello this morning like he usually did, and he did not reply to any of Ivan's text messages either. Boyfriends should _not_ ignore text messages, yes? He had stopped a few random students and asked if any of them saw Gilbert, and one of them, shaking nervously, said he saw the senior heading for the rooftop this morning.

His annoyance melted away when he found Gilbert at the school rooftop. The other boy was asleep, leaning against the wall with his backpack as a pillow of sorts, an exhausted expression on his face. He must have turned his phone off, or was too deep in sleep to even hear it. "Gilbert?" Ivan said softly as he knelt down next to his boyfriend, but there was no response.

He chided the sleeping boy, "You'll catch cold this way, yes?" He removed the scarf he wore and wound it gently around Gilbert's neck. Gilbert merely mumbled something unintelligible in his sleep. Ivan chuckled and followed Gilbert's example; he propped his book bag against the wall and sat down next to the other boy in a lazy slouch. He then carefully put an arm around Gilbert's shoulder and gave a gentle pull so that Gilbert's head came to rest in his lap.

Gilbert turned in his sleep, trying to make himself more comfortable in Ivan's lap, and ended up nuzzling his face against Ivan's lower abdomen with a low growl. "Gilbert, you are aggressive when you are sleeping, yes? How cute!" he remarked softly, running his hands gently through Gilbert's hair.

He smiled. Gilbert was warming up to him more quickly than he had expected – and willingly too. Things were working out as he had planned, yes?

--x--

Ludwig marched up the staircase to the rooftop, feeling more than just a little annoyed. One of the teachers had asked him if Gilbert came to school today, as his brother had failed to turn up in any of his classes. Since Ludwig had literally dragged Gilbert to school with him, that meant his older brother was simply skipping classes. _Again._

He opened the door to see sitting right across him, propped against the wall, was Ivan – Gilbert's new boyfriend – and Gilbert himself. Ludwig was about to call out to them and give Gilbert a piece of his mind when he finally noticed the... _interesting_ position Gilbert was in.

Stammering out an apology, he fled back down the stairs, blushing furiously. Stumbling on Gilbert and his boyfriend was one thing, but to witness his older brother doing_ that_ was another thing entirely. Gilbert's head was pillowed in Ivan's lap, his face buried in Ivan's crotch. And the way Ivan was stroking Gilbert's hair with that odd little smile on his face... it _had_ to be that, right?

He was still stunned from the whole deal and did not realise where his legs took him, until Francis slapped him on his back in greeting. He blinked when he realised that he was in the cafeteria, and Francis had tugged him to take a seat at the table with the rest of the senior's friends, Antonio and Arthur.

Antonio was excitedly telling the rest something about how Lovino had finally given in and added him as a friend on Facebook. He had discovered that Lovino was a whole lot better than him in Mafia Wars, but at least he was more than just a few levels higher than the younger boy in FarmVille. "So I left a message for him when I visited his farm! 'You should plant tomatoes!' I told him," Antonio stated with much enthusiasm.

"Ludwig?" Francis said worriedly, more concerned with the younger boy than Antonio's adventures on social networking websites. "You okay? You look like you've just seen a ghost–"

"No! I didn't see a thing! I did _not_ just see my brother giving his boyfriend a blowjob at the school rooftop!" Ludwig blurted.

Arthur sprayed a mouthful of tea all over Francis, who was too stunned to even notice, while a second later Antonio's jaw dropped as they all stared at Ludwig. "What did you say?" Francis demanded once he got his composure back, still oblivious to the tea dripping all over his face.

Ludwig turned a deep shade of crimson when he realised what he had just said at the top of his lungs. "Nothing!" he hastily replied. "I–I–I need to go home! And... and _clean!"_ he announced before he fled. It was a good thing that he did, for he certainly would not have liked to hear the rest of the conversation.

"Did you hear what he said?" Francis gasped.

"No amount of cleaning will get _that _sight out of his brain, surely," Arthur commented, his own cheeks more than slightly pink.

"No, not the cleaning!" Francis wiped his face with a paper napkin. "Antonio! Did you hear that? Our Gilbert's finally a man now! I never thought he would–"

"Oh god," Arthur groaned, interrupting. "I think it's time for me to leave," he said, and he did, muttering something about not needing more disturbing mental images in his head.

"Do you know what this means?" Francis said.

"We can finally go on our dates without having to worry about Gilbert calling us about something silly?"

"Absolutely!" Francis declared. "This calls for a celebration!"

--x--

His two friends were snickering about something when a sleepy-eyed Gilbert joined them in the cafeteria. "What are you two so excited about?" he asked as he took a seat. He felt much better after his long nap at the rooftop, and was surprised when he woke up to find Ivan was with him. Granted, it was a little bit embarrassing to find that he had slept a while with his head in Ivan's lap – good thing no one saw them, right? – but it was also kind of... nice. Mushy, but nice. Maybe just a _bit_ awesome.

Oh hell. He was not turning into a sappy idiot like Antonio, was he?

The sappy idiot in question smirked. "Oh, we just heard about what you did this afternoon."

"Huh?"

"You know, with Ivan."

"What the hell are you talking about? I haven't seen him all day!" Gilbert snapped out a lie. If these two idiot friends of his found out about that bit of mushiness at the rooftop – he willed his cheeks not to turn red; there were times he hated how he was so damned pale-skinned, and this was one of them – well, that would not be awesome. Oh no.

"Really? Then my dear Gilbert, why do you have his scarf around your neck?" Francis said slyly.

Gilbert's response to that was to lunge for Francis' own neck.

--x--

Ivan absently bit his pencil as he stared at the book in his lap, Gilbert seated next to him while munching on a sandwich. The two were spending lunchtime together, leaning against one of the trees in the school grounds. It was rather nice, just sitting there in the shade, with him asking Gilbert to explain a few things in order to finish his German work exercises.

"What is a good nickname for a sweet person?"

_"Mädchen._ Or _Püppchen."_

_"Püppchen," _Ivan repeated. "What does that mean?"

"Something like 'sweetheart'. Or 'baby', I guess."

"I see, I see. Thank you, _птичка_._"_

Gilbert raised an eyebrow. "What?"

_"Ptichka,"_ Ivan repeated the Russian word, pronouncing it slowly and clearly for Gilbert. "I think I will call you that." Those dating advice websites mentioned that pet names were good in a relationship, yes? Since they were together for a week already, Ivan thought that perhaps they should give each other pet names by now.

"And what does that mean?" Gilbert asked, then grinned. "Your Awesomeness?"

"No. Even better. It means, 'little bird'."

_"Little bird?"_

"Because you remind me of one, so cute!" Ivan explained with a chuckle. _"Птичка! Птичка!"_ he sang out loudly, startling the few other students nearby, and only stopped when Gilbert tackled him down and clasped a firm hand over his mouth.

"Dammit Ivan, stop that!" Gilbert hissed.

Ivan easily pried Gilbert's hand away. "But it's cute, yes? And I do not think anyone else here knows what it means. So I will just call you that whether you like it or not.... _Птичка."_ He grinned as the other boy flushed in both anger and embarrassment. Teasing Gilbert was quickly turning into a more than enjoyable pastime for him.

"Fine! Just... just not in public," Gilbert muttered, looking away. How adorable, yes? "Or I swear to god I will_ kill_ you, got that?" he growled.

"Okay! And you will call me _Püppchen,_ yes?"

"Oh hell _no."_

--x--_  
_

Ludwig attacked an imaginary spot on the white marble countertop with a sponge. While he seemed to be absorbed in his work, his mind was actually somewhere else – or rather, on someone else.

Contrary to what most people in school thought, he and Gilbert were in fact, very close. Even though Gilbert's less than sound behaviour drove him up the wall most of the time, while Gilbert always complained on how he was so boring and prim and proper, they were brothers, and that was what brothers did; they annoyed the hell out of each other, sure, but they were there for each other. Why was it so hard for some people to understand?

What _he_ did not understand right now however, was his brother's new relationship with one Ivan Braginski.

He knew that Ivan basically spoilt Gilbert silly; Antonio had told him that Ivan paid for practically everything whenever the Russian and Gilbert went out together. His brother certainly enjoyed the attention, declaring that it was about time someone recognised his awesomeness. But surely Gilbert would have enough sense to see that the whole thing seemed to good to be true?

No, he corrected himself, Gilbert had plenty of sense; it was just that his brother ignored them whenever it suited him.

It did not help that Ludwig had heard all sorts of things about the Russian exchange student, such as Ivan being the son of someone important in the _Mafiya_ (plausible, considering how much money he spent on his dates with Gilbert); was involved in international arms trafficking (maybe not _him_, but perhaps a close relative or two?); kidnapped small children and boiled them down to make glue (this was just far too _stupid,_ but at any rate Ludwig was sure small children were frightened of Ivan), and plenty of other things, but they all had one common aspect: Ivan Braginski was bad news.

Asking for advice from his brothers' friends on the situation was an exercise in futility; Francis and Antonio were thrilled that Gilbert was out of their hair and did not have any objections to the whole thing. Arthur did not find it an issue; as long as Ivan did not pull a Yoko Ono and ruin band practice, Gilbert could go out with whomever he wanted.

Ludwig told himself he would not have cared much either, but they were still students, and the primary duty of every student was to _study_. Not to skip classes at whim, like what Gilbert has been doing a lot of lately.

But how should he make his concerns known to his brother? Gilbert was not only stubborn, he also seemed to be permanently stuck in that 'authority sucks!' phase. Asking Gilbert to re-evaluate his relationship with Ivan would just make Gilbert pursue it with even greater enthusiasm. His older brother was already – Ludwig blushed, recalling the scene he witnessed a few days ago when he stumbled upon the couple at the rooftop – doing, err, _things._ If he tried to approach his brother directly, who knew what else out of sheer bloody-mindedness, would Gilbert do – to Ivan, or let Ivan do to him – _ach_ _mein Gott!_ He resumed cleaning the countertop, trying to block out the mental images that threatened his sanity.

"What are you doing?"

Ludwig nearly jumped in surprise when his brother came into the kitchen. "Cleaning," he gruffly answered, still not taking his eyes off the countertop.

Gilbert snorted. "Cleaning. You've been cleaning the house from top to bottom for the past few days! What the hell's gotten into you?"

"I am in no way unsettled and I fail to see how my aspiration for an immaculate home is of any relevance–"

"Okay, you're using all those big words, so that means you're _really_ antsy about something," Gilbert interrupted, while Ludwig flushed guiltily. Gilbert took a seat at the kitchen table, crossed his arms and glared at his younger brother. "Stop scrubbing and start talking," he ordered.

Ludwig groaned. Must Gilbert do his Concerned Big Brother routine now? "It's nothing."

"Yeah, right. Your awesome big brother knows something's bugging you. Now talk or I'll tell everyone about your secret porn stash. And yes, they'll believe me, I've got pictures to prove it."

"You wouldn't dare."

Gilbert smirked. "Wanna bet?"

He sighed in defeat and took the seat facing Gilbert. "I'm just a little worried." He winced at how awkward he sounded. God, they were never any good at this.

"About?"

"How you've been lately."

"Huh? I feel fine–"

"You've been skipping classes. A lot of them."

Gilbert sighed. _"That's _what you've been so worried about?"

No, that's just a small part of it. Look here, oh idiot brother of mine, he wanted to yell, do you know what on earth you're getting into? Do you know how Ivan's presence sets off all sorts of warnings in my head? There's just something so _off_ about this whole thing and you can't see it with that stupid ego of yours in the way!

Some of his agitation must have shown on his face, since the look in Gilbert's eyes softened. "Look, I was just a bit tired. I promise I'll skip just _one _class a week, if it makes you feel better."

"That does _not _make you any less appalling, you know."

"Hey! Of course I still need to cut a class or two every now and then. Need to keep up my awesome reputation!"

Forget not being good at this, they were just plain _awful_ at it. He never could say whatever he really wanted to say, and Gilbert never could pick up any hints of what really bothered him. Ludwig groaned.

Gilbert must have taken that groan as a signal to end their discussion however, since his brother grinned and asked, "Now that's taken care of, what's for dinner?"

Ludwig felt like hitting his head on the table.


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 5**

Ivan checked his watch just as he reached Gilbert's home. Gilbert should be done practicing with his band by now, he thought. He doubted that the band would have enough resources to actually soundproof the garage, so it would be safe to assume that they were done for the day since he could not hear any music. He wondered if he should just walk in there, but decided against it.

Gilbert had made it clear; do _not_ interrupt band practice because that would seriously piss him off, and you do _not _want to piss off the awesome Gilbert, not to mention that Gilbert's and Arthur's combined wrath (according to Francis, who had been subjected to it a few times) was far more terrifying than an ICBM strike.

Besides, it was not a good idea to annoy boyfriends too much, yes? Even if they looked so cute when they were angry. Ivan chuckled softly to himself.

Sure enough, a few minutes later the band trooped out of the garage. Antonio, Arthur and Francis had their instrument cases slung on their backs. Arthur and Francis were arguing about something, leaving Antonio to be the first to notice the waiting Russian. He called out in acknowledgment, "Hey Ivan!"

"Hello," Ivan replied as he walked towards Gilbert, then hugged and kissed his boyfriend on the cheek in greeting. The resulting wolf-whistles and teasing remarks from Gilbert's friends did not bother him one bit, but it certainly bothered Gilbert.

"It's a Russian thing!" Gilbert yelled.

"Of course it is," Francis said in mock agreement. Antonio merely grinned, while even Arthur looked slightly amused.

"Don't make me fucking kill you, Bonnefoy," Gilbert snarled.

Fortunately any possible lewd remarks from Francis were prevented by Arthur kicking him soundly in the shins ("Ow! Arthur, what did I do?" "You were born.") and dragging him away, while Antonio contented himself with a mischievous wink at Gilbert before he followed after them.

"Shall we go?" Ivan asked.

"Hang on, let me get my jacket."

Gilbert told Ivan last night he wanted to go for coffee and maybe a movie after he was done with practice. He actually wanted to go out yesterday, but they could not since Ivan had to run more than just a few errands for his host parent. Gilbert did not even mind when Ivan told him that they would have to walk or resort to public transportation since Mr. Winter would be using the car, and said that his awesome self was not too bothered with having to walk.

Once Gilbert had retrieved his jacket, they set off to their destination. After a while, Ivan put an arm around Gilbert's shoulders and tried to pull the other boy closer, but Gilbert stiffened slightly and promptly shrugged his arm off. He knew that Gilbert was not used to such public displays of affection, but it was about time they did some of that, yes? They were a couple, after all. Even if their relationship was somewhat unusual, Ivan would have preferred that those displays of affection were done mutually, willingly. Especially after that e-mail Ivan received last night; they were not only due, but vital.

Like in those dating advice websites and forums he read, perhaps it was a good time to play the heartbreaking card, yes?

"Why do you always do that? You are ashamed to be seen with me?" he said in the most plaintive tone he could muster.

Gilbert stopped abruptly and glared at Ivan. "Give me your hand," he ordered.

"What?" Ivan halted his steps, surprised. He certainly did not expect this.

"I said, give me your hand!" When Ivan still did not respond, Gilbert simply reached for his hand, held it in a firm grip and with a force that was a bit more than necessary, dragged the taller boy along as he resumed his pace.

"Oh! You're taking charge now, yes? I like it." Ivan caught up with Gilbert and started to swing their arms, not hiding that he enjoyed the almost childish gesture.

"Shuddup." There was a long pause before Gilbert added, "There, I'm all holding hands and being mushy and shit, you happy now?"

Ivan beamed. "Thank you, _зайчик."_

_"Zaichik?"_ Gilbert repeated, then made a face. "Now what the hell does _that _mean?"

"Bunny!"

Gilbert rolled his eyes and snorted, but to Ivan's surprise he did not let go of Ivan's hand. Still, the fact that he remained silent was rather unnerving. _"Зайчик?_ Are you angry?" asked the Russian in a worried tone.

Gilbert did not answer the question. Instead, he looked away and grumbled, "I'm _still_ not calling you _Püppchen."_

Ivan chuckled.

--x--

"It's on me," Gilbert said when Ivan reached for his wallet, and quickly paid for their food and drinks before Ivan could stop him.

"What? But I thought–"

"I can't let you pay for everything all the time," Gilbert said as he lifted his tray of food and made his way from the counter to a table; Ivan followed suit with a similar tray. "Be honoured that the awesome me is doing this for you, so shut up."

"Thank you!"

"Oh yeah," Gilbert said as he reached into his jacket pocket, "I – uh, got something for you. Here." He handed Ivan a small package; one that contained a new scarf. One of Ludwig's dogs – Blackie, the silly mutt – had somehow got hold of the scarf Ivan had lent to him a while ago and decided to make it a chew toy, resulting in a considerable hole near one of the scarf's ends.

Ivan literally lit up with pleasure when he opened the gift. "You remembered!" he exclaimed as he held up the scarf.

"Huh?"

"Our anniversary! It is our second week together, yes? Well, actually it was yesterday – no wonder you wanted to go out so much last night!"

Gilbert coughed and somehow managed to force a laugh. "Of course I remembered! I'm too awesome to forget!" he lied.

What the hell? Seriously, who the fuck celebrates two-week anniversaries? Okay, Ivan did, so this had better be another weird Russian thing because _damn_ it was girly. Still, admitting that he had no idea that it was their anniversary – he resisted the urge to gag – but was just incredibly lucky? Hell no.

Or maybe, and more likely, his awesome subconscious _did_ remember and made him buy the scarf. Because he was just _that_ awesome. Yeah, that must be it.

"I got something for you too!" Ivan announced.

Gilbert blinked as Ivan placed a long, narrow rectangular box on the table. Maybe this anniversary thing was not that bad after all. He untied the ribbon and opened the box. "Wow... this – this is for me?" he stammered.

Ivan nodded enthusiastically.

The box held a pair of black drumsticks with a stylised silver flame design. They were even of the exact length and the tips Gilbert favoured. How did Ivan know? Not that he was complaining. Gilbert had seen the sticks in the local music store and knew that they were not exactly the stuff that belonged in the bargain bin.

"Ivan? You sure about this? This probably cost you quite a bit...." Certainly a whole lot more than the scarf _he_ got for Ivan, because that one _was_ from the bargain bin.

"Anything for you, _зайчик."_

Gilbert allowed himself one sappy smile on his face. There, that was his quota for the whole year. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

"So will you call me _Püppchen_ now?"

"Oh fuck _no."_

--x--

They ended up just hanging around the mall after that since both of them would rather shoot themselves in the head than watch the one movie they had not yet seen, an awful romance flick guaranteed to make them ill. Ivan insisted on walking Gilbert home when it was time to leave, even though it was far out of the way for the Russian.

When they reached the Beilschmidt residence, Gilbert was more than surprised when instead of the customary goodbye kiss on the cheek he was expecting, Ivan grasped his chin and leant down to kiss him on the lips. At first he froze, unable to respond, but as the kiss continued and his heart began to pound, he gave into it and Ivan's arms pulled him closer by the waist.

He could tell that Ivan was far more familiar with this than he was; Gilbert's own experience was limited to that time ages ago with Antonio. Antonio had wanted someone to practice with so he could impress his crush back then – some chick Gilbert could not even remember – and Gilbert only agreed because he was curious about the whole deal, and he knew that unlike Francis, Antonio _would_ stop if he started to feel uncomfortable.

Ivan must have sensed how he stiffened slightly when Ivan's hands moved lower, for those hands travelled back up to caress his back soothingly. The Russian pulled away from the kiss and then smiled, something which Gilbert found more irritating rather than reassuring, since he felt that Ivan seemed to be patronising him.

In a move that was fuelled more by bravado rather than lust, he pulled Ivan down by the collar for another kiss, this one more enthusiastic than the first. And just when he was really getting into it, nearly smiling when he was sure he heard Ivan give out a moan (of course it had to be Ivan and _not_ him, since _he_ was the awesome one in this relationship), they were interrupted.

The door opened, the noise causing them to separate in surprise, and Ludwig stepped out of the house. "I thought I heard – _aack!"_

"Goddammit, West!" he yelled while Ivan started, of all things, giggling in mirth. "Way to kill the mood!"

"Sorry!" Ludwig apologised, blushing furiously. "Um, uh... carry on?"

Ivan managed to stifle a chuckle, but he still had tears of laughter in his eyes as he shook his head. "I think I better leave now, yes?" the Russian said, and gave Gilbert a quick peck on his pouty lower lip before he left.

"West?"

"Yes?" Ludwig said hesitantly as Gilbert glared at him.

"I'm giving you five seconds' head start before I kill you."

Ludwig promptly fled into the house and headed for the safety of his room, where he spent the whole night bracing himself against the door to prevent a very furious Gilbert from kicking it in.

--x--

Gilbert winced. "What the hell? That hurts!"

Arthur rolled his eyes. "Stop that, you great big poof. Now shut it or I can't clean these scrapes of yours."

"Ouch."

"Will you just stay _still?_ If you keep squirming, I end up jabbing the stupid cut instead of cleaning it and _that's_ why it stings. Or would you rather have someone else do this?"

No, actually he would not. Certainly not Antonio and Francis, because apart from his sore bits and nasty scrapes, he would just have to add ringing ears from the two idiots sniggering their heads off to his list of hurts. Ludwig _would_ help and tend to his cuts and scrapes, but Gilbert would rather do without the boring lecture that automatically come with it. Ivan might have been the better person to do this, but this was absolutely one occasion where Gilbert did _not_ want the Russian to show up.

So here he was in the school infirmary, where instead of having any of the aforementioned tend to him, he had one particular uppity friend with a rather sadistic streak poking at his face and hands with a pair of tweezers and swabs. Not that he cared about a few scrapes or anything, he just did not want to deal with the earful Ludwig would give him if he did not do something about them; would it kill you to at least get those cuts looked after, what if they get infected and so on, his younger brother would scold.

And whatever gave him the idea that Arthur was the mothering type? Gilbert made a note to find out and when he did, he would beat the pudding out of it.

"Owwww!"

"Oops. Butterfingers," Arthur muttered, but Gilbert detected just the slightest bit of malice in his tone. "Honestly, I don't know why you just can't get the school nurse to do this."

"What, her? She took one look at me and stomped out of the infirmary." Probably because she was still angry about that prank he pulled on her last year, but like Arthur needed to know that.

"Can't imagine why," Arthur absently replied as he finished tending to the last scrape on Gilbert's cheek. "There. Now, where does that woman keep the antibacterial cream?"

"Third shelf from your left," Gilbert said.

"You _have_ spent a lot of time here, haven't you?"

"Shut up and just get on with it."

Arthur would probably have, if the door had not opened and the very last person Gilbert wanted to see then stepped inside.

--x--

To say that Ivan was not too pleased would be like saying that the Black Death was just a mild case of the sniffles going around, or that Hitler was just a tiny bit racist. He certainly had some of that extreme displeasure showing on his expression, for everyone could not get out of the smiling-yet-oddly-psychotic Russian's way fast enough. Someone told him that Gilbert had gone to the infirmary and seemed to be in bad shape; Ivan had dropped everything – literally, for he was helping a teacher carry some books somewhere, but she did not utter a word of protest – to go there and see if Gilbert was all right.

He opened the door to the infirmary and found Gilbert sitting on the bed, while Arthur fussed over him with some swabs. Gilbert did not seem too battered, just a bunch of cuts and scrapes on his face; one or two looked rather nasty, but that was about it. He relaxed somewhat.

"Oh good, you're here. Do us all a favour and take care of this big baby, would you?" Arthur said, tossing the tube of antibacterial cream at him.

"What happened?" Ivan asked. When Gilbert simply looked away, he turned to Arthur.

"He got into a fight with a few guys. Good thing some people broke it up before any of the teachers found out. Last thing he needs is getting suspended," Arthur explained before Gilbert could stop him. "Ivan, I need to go to class, so mind finishing up here? I'm sure Gilbert would rather have you kiss his hurts better anyway. Oh, if anyone comes in and starts asking questions, just say that he tripped and took a tumble down the stairs. The clumsy twit does that once in a while ("I do not!" Gilbert protested, but Arthur shut him up with a finger-flick on his forehead) so they'll believe you." He then left the infirmary with a quick wave, absolutely unimpressed with the vicious glare Gilbert shot at him.

"What happened?" Ivan repeated.

"Nothing," Gilbert replied sullenly.

"This is _not_ nothing. Who did this to you?"

"Ivan, just quit it already. I'm fine, all right? H-hey!" Ivan had pushed Gilbert down on the bed, forcing him to lie down on his back. "Get off!"

Ivan, being the bigger and heavier out of the two, easily kept Gilbert pinned down. "Who did this, _зайчик?"_ He could not allow anything to happen to Gilbert, not _now_, when he was so _close–_

"I told you, I'm fine! Now get off!" Gilbert snarled, but there was more than just a touch of panic in his voice.

"Not before you tell me who did this to you," he said and tried to smile reassuringly, but somehow that only made Gilbert look even more alarmed.

"Ivan, let go of me _now _or I _swear_ I'll fucking knock you out like I did with those jackasses–"

"Wait," Ivan interrupted, "you started the fight? And you beat them all?"

"Of course I did, I'm awesome! What do you take me for, a fucking pansy?"

"But why were you fighting?"

Gilbert mumbled something Ivan could not quite catch.

"Why?" Ivan pressed on.

"I beat them up 'cause the idiots were saying some bullshit about you," Gilbert muttered, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

Ivan blinked. "About me?"

"Yeah. I heard them saying stuff, and uh – well, talking crap about you, means talking crap about me. And anyone who talks crap about me gets his ass kicked!"

Ivan blinked, then beamed. _"Зайчик!_ That is so _sweet_ of you!"

Gilbert gaped at him. "No, it's _not_ sweet, you Russian freak!"

"No?" Ivan released his hold on Gilbert. "Oh. Right. It is awesome, yes?"

Gilbert smirked and drew himself up. "You got that right – ow!"

Ivan drew back in alarm; he was only trying to apply some of the antibacterial cream Arthur had tossed at him on one of Gilbert's cuts. Surely, it did not hurt that much? Or perhaps his elder sister was right; men were just complete babies when they were ill or injured. He chuckled and resumed – what was it again, he was sure he read it somewhere – ah, his tender loving care, yes?

_"Owwwww."_

"You are so cute when you pout like that."

"Shut up."

Ivan cheerfully ignored him and continued to apply the cream, then a few plasters on some of the more nasty-looking cuts. Gilbert made his resentment about the whole situation known – repeatedly and loudly – but Ivan endured it all with a smile, humming softly to himself. Of course, the fact that Gilbert grumbled at him in German made it much easier, since he barely had any idea what Gilbert said. He was sure that the things his boyfriend muttered were not to be found in any of the German language textbook he used in class though.

Once he was done, Gilbert reluctantly left the infirmary, muttering something about keeping his promise to his younger brother about not skipping any more classes. Ivan however, had a feeling that he had forgotten something. Oh yes, what did Arthur mean by kissing Gilbert's hurts better anyway? Did he mean it literally? Or was it simply an expression?

Perhaps he should look that up on the Internet when he got home, yes? That is, after he replied to that important e-mail that arrived in his inbox early this morning.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 6**

Gilbert checked his watch and noted that he still had quite some time before Ivan would arrive. "All dressed up and ready to go," he muttered to himself, "wherever that is."

Ivan did not show up at school today (not that Gilbert was anxious or anything, it was just an observation) and when he had texted Ivan to ask on the Russian's whereabouts (since he was just curious, that was all) Ivan had simply replied:

_We're going somewhere after school. Pick you up at 4. Dress up a little._

Gilbert hardly paid attention to what he wore; he was one of those people who simply put on whatever he saw at the top of the pile. For Gilbert, to 'dress up a little' simply meant making sure he had a fresh set of clothes on. Fortunately, after Francis' major overhaul over the organisation of his wardrobe and Ludwig's almost-religious fervour of placing his clean clothes back in the painstaking order Francis had set up, the clothing he changed into when he got home altogether formed an ensemble that Francis would have approved of – even though he was unaware of it.

Let's see, he had changed. What else? Oh yes; a few minutes in the bathroom with the electric shaver (which was technically his brother's, but they shared almost everything anyway so he considered it as his too) and he was done. He never saw the need to actually check his appearance in a mirror; he _knew_ he looked awesome all the time. But it did not hurt to look just to admire his admittedly good looks once in a while, right?

"Damn, I look awesome," he muttered, then grinned at his clean-shaven reflection in the bathroom mirror. The doorbell rang, preempting any further observations. Gilbert grabbed his jacket, went downstairs and opened the door to find Ivan, smiling as usual, although Gilbert thought his smile seemed a little... forced? Strange, but Ivan was a little weird to begin with, so he thought nothing much of it.

"So where are we going?" he asked Ivan when they were in the car.

"The airport."

Gilbert frowned. "Why the airport? And why the hell do I have to get all dressed up to go there?"

"We are meeting my sister! And I want to introduce you to her, so it is important that you look your best."

"Your sister? You never told me you had a sister."

Ivan looked at him with genuine surprise. "Really? Well, I have two sisters. This is my younger sister we are picking up at the airport. She is visiting for a few days."

"Huh. So is she hot?" he asked curiously.

Ivan made a strange-sounding laugh. "She is pretty, yes. Oh, we need to stop somewhere and buy her a welcoming gift."

"You mean something like flowers?"

Ivan shook his head. "Actually, I was thinking of knives."

Gilbert stared at him. "Knives?"

-x-

All airports were designed by a secret alliance of aliens and bureaucrats, Gilbert had decided some time ago. Aliens because the staff manning the counters looked like mutant freaks and the speakers blared out strange announcements at five-minute intervals in a language no one understood; bureaucrats due to the massive amounts of fuck-all in between any two points in the premises.

He sat in the waiting lounge, glancing at the huge flight board listing all arrivals every now and then. The flight Ivan's sister was on was delayed for about an hour, so there was nothing they could do but wait. Ivan paced restlessly near him, but occasionally stopped to ask him if he wanted to eat or drink anything. When Gilbert tried to ask Ivan about his sister, the Russian seemed rather reluctant to talk about her. All he would say was that her name was Natalia, she was just a few years his junior and was into knife-collecting.

Gilbert was fond of his younger brother and was not afraid of making that known ("West was so _cute_ when he was little!") so he was rather surprised that Ivan did not gush about _his_ younger sibling, especially considering how mushy and sappy the Russian could be. After all, Ivan pretty much doted on him (hey, it was natural that someone as awesome as he was would be adored and worshipped) but the Russian did not really speak of this Natalia like a typical older brother who was protective of his younger sister, so Gilbert ended up speculating on the subject.

What kind of girl would collect knives anyway? Gilbert had narrowed it down to two simple possibilities.

Possibility number one; she was kind of cool. _Knives_. Yeah.

Possibility number two; she was a homicidal loon. Like that psycho girl in kindergarten who liked to smack his head with her plastic frying pan every time he pointed that she ought to be standing in the girls' queue, instead of the boys'.

No, couldn't be. She was probably like Ivan, he decided.

He must have somehow dozed off; one moment he was blankly staring at his own shoes, the next he found Ivan leaning over him, gently shaking his arm.

"Gilbert? Her flight has landed," Ivan said, "she'll show up soon."

Gilbert yawned and stretched, then blinked when he realised that he had a scarf wrapped loosely around his neck and shoulders. He got up and followed Ivan, who had moved closer to one of the gates. Some time later a group of travellers trooped out; he peered here and there, wondering what this Natalia looked like.

A girl about fifteen was the last person to step out of the gate, dragging a wheeled travel bag behind her. She was accompanied by a stewardess, who for some reason looked a bit nervous. Ivan waved at her; the girl beamed when she saw him. So this must be Natalia; she was tall, pale and blonde just like her brother, Gilbert thought. Natalia said something to the stewardess, pointing at Ivan a few times, before the stewardess nodded and left.

Ivan greeted his sister, giving her a hug and kissing her on both cheeks. The two spoke in Russian for a bit, making Gilbert feel just a little left out. Ivan must have noticed, for he ceased speaking in Russian. "I wanted to get you something you would really like, but they only had these," Ivan said as he offered his sister the small bouquet of flowers he had bought earlier at the airport gift shop.

Natalia was puzzled at the sudden switch of language, but followed her brother's example, although her speech was a bit halting. "They are nice. I am happy with whatever you get for me." Only then did she seem to notice Gilbert, who had been standing near Ivan all this while.

"Natalia, this is Gilbert. Gilbert, this is my sister, Natalia," Ivan introduced.

"Hey there," Gilbert said and offered his hand. Natalia hesitated for a bit and only took it after a quick glance at her brother, who nodded. She was probably shy, or perhaps awed by his awesome presence.

"Gilbert is my boyfriend," Ivan declared.

Gilbert nearly regretted offering her that handshake, since she nearly crushed his hand in a strong vise-like grip as she glared at him.

-x-

"She is a little intimidating, yes?" Ivan said once it was just the two of them in the car, on their way back to Gilbert's home.

The trip back from the airport was more than just a bit uncomfortable; Natalia either remained silent, or chose to speak only in Russian, despite Ivan's attempts to make conversation between all three of them. Gilbert was relieved when they finally reached the Winter residence, where Ivan's host parent welcomed Natalia and showed her to her room while Ivan excused himself, saying that he had to drive Gilbert back.

Gilbert shrugged. Intimidating was not even half of it. "Bet she hasn't got anyone dying to ask her out."

"Actually, she did go on a date with this boy once."

"What happened?"

"Let's just say my sister made it clear that she did not like him."

"What did she do? Slapped him in the face?"

"She broke his fingers!"

Gilbert decided not to probe any further.

-x-

Ivan kept a brisk pace as he made his way down the school hallways and corridors (it was good that people automatically got out of his way, yes?) and scanned the surroundings. Gilbert had not replied to any of the Russian's text messages _again_, and nor was he at the rooftop, playing truant. At any rate, Ivan hoped that Gilbert would be waiting for him near the main gate after school as usual.

Yesterday, when he had introduced Gilbert as his boyfriend to Natalia, it was obvious to everyone that she did not take it well. While Gilbert did not understand most of what Natalia said in the drive home since she spoke mostly in Russian, he had certainly noticed – Gilbert would have to be deaf, blind, and a fool on top of it _not_ to – that from her body language, she had found his presence unwanted.

Ivan sighed. Natalia has always been rather possessive, yes?

At first everyone thought it was rather adorable, how the little girl of the family was always clinging affectionately to her brother. With no father figure to look up to – their father having passed away a long time ago – little Natasha had simply focused the love she would have bestowed on her parent on Ivan. However, when Ivan got older and began showing interest in girls, and not to mention the occasional boy, Natalia was not too happy with the new development.

No one was good enough for her big brother, she opined. _No one._ And she certainly demonstrated her belief with great fierceness; Ivan's friends simply stopped coming over, feeling more than just a touch disturbed by the little girl who would linger around, glaring daggers at them. She even followed him around when she started school, and no amount of cajoling or explaining would get her to cease acting like a stalker.

It was quite normal, their elder sister said, for a little sister to be jealous of anyone whom she considered as a rival for her precious brother's affections. "It's just a phase, she'll grow out of it!"

That was what, years ago? Natalia certainly did _not_ grow out of it.

As much as Ivan hated to admit it, he was a little relieved when he was selected for the student exchange program. It would mean being away from his family, true, but it would also give him a much-needed respite. Ivan loved his younger sister, really, but there were times she absolutely scared the _hell_ out of him.

And although it would probably get him into trouble with Mr. Winter later, Ivan had left for school this morning only_ after _he was sure that he had hidden all the knives in the household. Natalia's love for blades was sometimes too much, yes? He certainly did not want his sister to be arrested here or something for walking around with one. Thank goodness that she could not bring any of them on the plane in her baggage, and that he ended up not buying her one of those Swiss Army knives from the airport gift shop.

Ivan relaxed just a little bit when he spotted his boyfriend near the school's main gate. Gilbert was busy talking to his two friends, Francis and Antonio, and nearly jumped in surprise when Ivan embraced him from behind and gave him the customary kiss on the cheek. If Ivan had not been too occupied with worry about – and of – his sister, he would have been pleased to notice that unlike previous occasions, Gilbert did not flinch away from the display of affection.

"Why didn't you reply to my messages?" Ivan asked, his tone almost accusing.

"Huh? Oh, my phone battery died. What's up?" Gilbert asked, looking up at him.

"Let's go somewhere, yes?"

Francis protested, "But we were just about to get something to eat! After all, it's been a while since the three of us hung out together–"

Behind an oblivious Gilbert, Ivan smiled, but his eyes flashed in undisguised threat.

"–but I just remembered that Antonio and I have – let's see – oh, some other stuff to do," Francis mumbled nervously, inadvertently taking a step back.

"We do?" Antonio said, confused and unaware of Francis' elbow nudging him in the ribs.

"We do," Francis repeated and then laughed awkwardly under Ivan's gaze. "Let's go, Antonio. All that – uh, homework to finish!"

"What the hell? When did you two ever care about homework?" Gilbert growled. "Hey! Quit ditching me!" he yelled to his two friends, but they were gone. "Assholes," he grumbled.

"Looks like it is just you and me, yes?" Ivan said to him.

"Whatever." Gilbert shrugged, trying to appear casual, but it was obvious from his pout that he was quite annoyed with his friends' decision to leave him behind. Ivan also knew that when Gilbert was pouting (hee hee, how cute!), that probably meant his boyfriend was either thinking hard about something (perhaps revenge on his two friends, yes?) or that he was starting to sulk (which is most likely, and is also very cute). And according to those websites he surfed, there was only one remedy for that.

"I want to try that new gelato place. I have never had Italian ice cream before!" Ivan announced. "Want to come?"

Gilbert smirked. "Sure, as long as you're buying."

"Of course."

"Hey, where's your kid sister? I mean, it's not as if I, uh, want her to tag along – not that my awesomeness can't handle her or anything – but you should spend some time with her or something," Gilbert said as they walked to the parking lot.

"Oh, do not worry about her," Ivan said with a shudder, and then hoped that Gilbert did not notice, "I am sure she is already doing very exciting things at this moment."

-x-

"But Francis," Antonio protested in puzzlement as his friend literally yanked him by the collar down the street, "I don't have any homework today!"

Francis rolled his eyes and when he judged that they were far enough from Ivan's creepy presence, he let go of Antonio. "I know that. And just as Gilbert said, it's not like we actually _care_ if we did anyway."

"So why did you say that we had other things to do? I wanted to hang out with Gilbert, we haven't done stuff together for a while now," Antonio said. "He's always with Ivan these days."

Francis laughed, trying to erase the sight of a creepy Ivan glaring at him from his memory. "And to think that just a few weeks ago you said that it would be nice for Gilbert to get himself someone so he would leave us in peace!"

"I said that? I don't remember saying that... but anyway, I kinda miss doing stuff together."

"You just like making fun of him until he looks like he's about to explode."

Antonio snickered. "But he's so cute when he does that! Not as adorable as my precious Lovino, but still, he is very fun to tease!"

"You're right, but – why, hello there, has anyone told you what a vision of loveliness you are?"

The 'vision of loveliness' Francis greeted was a tall, pretty young girl with a bow on her long blonde hair. Her eyes were blue, her skin pale and clear, and her features... familiar? Antonio could have sworn he had seen her – or someone like her – before.

Francis continued with a smile, "Why are you peeking around the corner like this? A beauty like you should not be hiding behind walls, but–"

"Quiet!" she snapped, her eyes flashing in indignation.

Francis gulped rather noisily, while Antonio blinked.

"Are you two friends," she said, wincing with obvious distaste, "with _that_ boy?" She pointed at a particular couple walking towards the parking lot.

"You mean Gilbert? Or Ivan?" Antonio asked.

"Yes, yes! With that... Gilbert."

Francis was puzzled, but he never let that get in the way of chatting up pretty girls, no matter how strange they could be. "We're friends with Gilbert, but I'm sure we can find other things to talk about, hmm? Just you and me–"

"Shut up!" she hissed, while Francis whimpered. "How long have they been going out?" she asked, scowling.

Antonio scratched the back of his head. Why was this girl asking these strange questions? "Those two? I'm not really sure. About three weeks, I think."

She made an odd growling sound. "Where are they going?"

Antonio looked at Francis, but his friend was silent. The shock of meeting a girl wholly immune to his advances was just probably too much for him, for he looked as if he were about to start sobbing. "I don't know. Maybe the mall? There aren't too many places to hang out around here."

She pursed her lips in thought. "I see. Where is this mall located?"

Antonio gave her directions. The strange girl nodded, committing the information to her memory. "Good. Oh, one more thing," she said.

"What?"

"You will not mention that we ever had this conversation with anyone, yes?" she said, smiling, but that cold smile clearly promised a fate worse than death should the two boys decided to do otherwise. Then she left with an airy toss of her head, leaving Francis and Antonio clinging to each other in terror.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 7**

"Hi there! Ve, I'm Feliciano, and welcome to Gelataria Bianco!"

Gilbert stared at the cheerful-looking young man manning the counter. "Hey, wait a minute! You look a lot like that kid at the pizza place Antonio's got the hots for."

Feliciano nodded, smiling. "Ve, you must mean Lovino! He's my brother! Are you two his friends?"

Gilbert smirked before he replied, "Sort of. Well, your brother's met my awesome self." At least this kid was all smiles and enthusiasm, unlike his brother. God knew what Antonio saw in that foul-tempered brat.

"So many kinds!" Ivan said, looking at the display of the assorted flavours available. "Is the zabajone good? But the tiramisu looks nice too... I know, what do you recommend? "

Feliciano beamed and declared, "Pasta!"

Gilbert blinked.

"Uh... they serve pasta in a gelato parlour?" Ivan said in confusion.

"No," Feliciano said, shaking his head mournfully, "but I think they should. Or at least, they should make pasta-flavoured gelato! You should order that, ve? Oh wait, I forgot, they don't make any."

Gilbert stared at Ivan, who stared back at him. When confronted with strange servers who recommend pasta-flavoured gelato, there was only thing to do: pick the safest flavour. "Two vanillas," Gilbert ordered.

"Okay, two vanillas coming right up! Please take a seat, I'll bring them to you."

"The service here is a little strange, yes?" Ivan said, looking at Feliciano, who was literally bouncing in happiness as he worked on their orders.

Gilbert shrugged and sat down. "Hey, at least the server's cute."

Ivan turned so fast to look at him the Russian must have gotten whiplash. "What did you say?"

"Huh? I said, at least the guy's cute."

The Russian frowned. "Why did you say that?"

What was his problem? Gilbert snorted. "Why not? Besides, just because I said he was cute doesn't mean I want to go out with him or something."

Ivan seemed to relax, but the Russian suddenly stiffened in his seat. He also seemed to be staring at a point just off Gilbert's shoulder. "What?" Gilbert asked curiously, and started to turn around. "Is there–"

"Nothing, nothing! I just thought I saw someone from school," Ivan said quickly, waving his hands. "Ah, here is our ice cream!"

Feliciano brought their orders; a bowl of three scoops of vanilla adorned with "a nice waffle biscuit, ve~" for each of them. "Enjoy your gelato!" he said cheerfully before he – there was just no other word for it – _skipped _back to his station behind the counter.

Gilbert promptly started on his ice cream, taking spoonfuls of the delicious dessert in between telling Ivan of the band's debut at the school concert.

"–and since I'm full of awesome, I _aced_ that drum solo and – _what _are you doing?"

Ivan had been peering here and there at the table, even up to the point of lifting the tablecloth to check under it, before he looked at the other tables. "Oh, it is nothing! I was just wondering if they had any knives," he answered sheepishly.

"They only sell ice cream here, so what the hell do they need knives for?" Gilbert snapped, annoyed at the interruption. Wait, Natalia collected knives, so maybe Ivan wanted to get one with the gelato parlour's name on it for her collection? That must be it. He then added in a much softer tone, "Even if they did, it's probably just cheap plastic ones like these spoons."

"Plastic! Plastic is _very_ good, yes? You cannot get hurt from plastic!" Ivan laughed, but it sounded rather strained.

"Did you get hit on the head or something? You're acting really weird today. Even more than the usual Russian weird."

"Gilbert," Ivan said, frowning slightly.

Great, Ivan was annoyed at him again. Now the Russian was even looking at him with an odd expression, as if he were expecting Gilbert to say something.

What the hell was he supposed to do anyway? Francis never faced anything like this – well, according to his stories anyway – while Antonio would probably just smile, because the clueless idiot would not have noticed that something was wrong in the first place. Nothing in the dating sims he played in secret gave him any clues as to what to do either, since in those games none of the girls (or boys, since Kiku had an extensive collection) ever got mad at his character and he _always_ got all the right flags up.

Ah, screw this mushy shit; he had better things to do, like enjoying his awesome dessert. So he bent his head and concentrated on doing that with such gusto that he failed to notice how Ivan slowly leant closer to him until the Russian spoke.

"You're such a messy eater!" Ivan chuckled.

"Huh?" Gilbert blurted as he looked up. His eyes widened when Ivan's hands were on his cheeks, and the Russian bent down to.. to... did Ivan just _lick_ ice cream off the corner of his mouth? Startled, and not to mention blushing furiously, he jerked away from Ivan's hold. "Knock it off!"

Ivan looked disappointed. "But–" he began to protest.

"We're in public!" Gilbert hissed. God, wasn't Ivan listening at all those times he grumbled about how the Russian was _not _to do any of that sappy and completely not awesome crap in the open?

It had taken him quite some time to adjust to Ivan's affectionate Russian-style greetings; Gilbert was just not used to affectionate gestures in public unless _he_ initiated them, and he had not done any of that for a while now. His younger brother stopped liking being on the receiving end of one of Gilbert's awesome tackle-cum-hugs at the age of twelve (although Gilbert still did it once in a while, because his brother was so cute when he was embarrassed), while stuff like hugging (of the manly kind!) his friends was also out of the question. Arthur was as uncomfortable with physical contact as he was. Francis was a complete no-no because it would mean being publicly groped in return. Antonio? Not him either, purely because Francis would take that as an invitation to join in.

"Sorry," Ivan mumbled.

They finished their dessert in uncomfortable silence; Gilbert was still embarrassed and irritated, while Ivan was just... disappointed? Anxious? Gilbert frowned. Since when did he start bothering about these things?

"Please come again, ve~" Feliciano bid them goodbye with a big smile as they walked out the door.

Ivan was still uncharacteristically silent, making Gilbert feel more awkward. He was supposed to be awesome at these things, wasn't he? Maybe he should say something. Just in case Ivan decided to sulk and just leave him here, and it would be a bitch to walk all the way home.

"Hey listen," Gilbert said (and Ivan should be honoured that he decided to grab the Russian's hand), "about what just – _gaaaaaaaaah!"_

He backed away in alarm right into Ivan, who automatically put his arms around him in a protective gesture. Instead of trying to shrug them off as usual, Gilbert welcomed those arms (not that he was terrified or something not awesome like that, it was just that Ivan was kind of nice to lean on), but from the way Ivan was holding him, it seemed as if the Russian could not decide whether to shield him, or to... hide behind him?

"Hello, brother," Natalia greeted calmly, as if appearing out of nowhere and startling the living daylights out of people was a common occurrence. Maybe it was another weird Russian thing too, since Ivan did that quite a bit when they first started going out.

"Hello," Ivan replied. "What are you doing here, Natasha?"

"I was just exploring the town," she said. "I went to your school earlier, Vanya."

"Vanya?" Gilbert repeated.

"It is like a more affectionate name for Ivan," the Russian boy explained, "Ivan, Vanya. Natalia, Natasha."

"You do not call him Vanya?" Natalia asked. When Gilbert shook his head, she added, "Then you will not call him that at all."

"Ah, we should head back home, yes?" Ivan said, laughing nervously.

"Yeah, why don't you two go on ahead. You two probably have some catching up to do. Or something," Gilbert said. A ride home with Ivan's creepy kid sister in the car was an experience he did not care for.

"No, зайчик, I should send you home. I insist," Ivan said, smiling – Natalia's eyes narrowed when the Russian called Gilbert by that pet name – but the smile was obviously a desperate one. _"Please," _he added with a pleading look.

Gilbert closed his eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled slowly before he gave in. "Fine."

Ivan sighed in relief, while Natalia did not bother to hide her disapproval as she silently followed the couple to the parking lot.

"You owe me a big one," Gilbert hissed softly.

"Thank you," the Russian replied.

"Vanya," he said.

"Yes?"

"Nothing, I just testing it out. It sounds kind of weird."

"It's okay. I'd rather have you call me _Püppchen_, yes?"

Gilbert's cheeks turned pink. "Screw you."

The Russian laughed again, but this time it was not forced, nervous laughter, but one of genuine amusement.

-x-

Ivan Braginski sighed for the umpteenth time as he stared at the ceiling of the washroom. Was it safe to come out? Perhaps he would ask the next person that walked in if he saw a certain tall, blonde girl lurking just out the door.

Natalia must have arrived sometime during Ivan's second class for the day. His sister must have somehow found out his schedule; even though he could not see her, he knew that she was waiting in the hallway, for who else would be humming Russian wedding songs just outside the classroom?

Ivan solved the problem of not wanting to run into his little sister by simply jumping out the window instead of using the door when class was over, to the extreme surprise of his schoolmates and teachers. Still, he could not keep this up, since a few of his classes were on the higher levels of the school building. He was desperate, yes, but he was not suicidal.

Solution? Hide in the boys' washroom. Natalia was not obsessive enough to actually walk in... yes? _Yes?_

Yesterday their host parent had taken Natalia out sightseeing, much to Ivan's relief, but this morning Mr. Winter left for yet another one of his work trips. Ivan still had to go to school and he knew that as soon as he left, his sister would trail after him. After all, she followed him the other day to school and somehow managed to find her way to the shopping mall.

He had thought that perhaps both him and Gilbert would be spared from Natalia's stalking if he took Gilbert somewhere after school, but once he saw that familiar bow atop a blonde head peeking from the corner of the window of the gelato parlour, he had panicked and immediately looked around to make sure there weren't any sharp objects lying around, just in case his sister decided to walk inside.

How _did_ Natalia get there in the first place? He had shown her around the neighbourhood, but he only took her to see the school he was attending, plus a few other places like the park. He certainly had not taken her to the mall, thinking that perhaps they would just go there some other day.

Ivan sighed. That ought to teach him not to underestimate the determination of possessive little sisters, yes?

He checked his watch. Let's see, he had about ten minutes or so before time for lunch. He certainly could not hide in the washroom the whole day since he still needed to settle a few things, he was hungry, and not forgetting that he had to meet his boyfriend–

_Gilbert!_

If Natalia could not find her precious big brother anywhere in the school, she might start following Gilbert instead; who knew what would she do to him? Ivan shuddered. He was quite sure that in other circumstances Gilbert could take care of himself; Gilbert was a big boy and perfectly capable of handling himself in a fight and such, but Natalia was _Natalia. _

_He_ was a great deal taller and bigger than Gilbert, and what was he doing? Sitting on the sink countertop in the boys' washroom for hours, alternating between staring at the ceiling and playing Tetris on his cellular phone, hiding from her.

The strain of trying to figure out how to keep Gilbert out of harm's way – harm here obviously being his younger sister – and keep _himself_ safe from Natalia's more spirited efforts was starting to take a toll on the Russian. He was jumpy, easily irritated, and the resulting creepy smile on his face practically made almost everyone literally throw themselves out of his path. And it had been only, what, three days?

Natalia was staying for a week.

Four more days to go. Ivan felt like weeping.

He had hoped that his display of affection on Gilbert at the gelato parlour a few days ago would finally, clearly, show Natalia that he was not interested in her, not in the way she wished. Not to mention that Gilbert was fun to tease, even though the boy was more annoyed with him than usual for pulling that stunt.

He should have known better. It had made Natalia only hate Gilbert even more. Ivan had caught her repeatedly stabbing a beet when she was making dinner last night, a beet that had been carved into a passable likeness of his boyfriend's face. Apparently Natalia's skill with a knife had improved a great deal during the time he was away.

Ivan sighed again. Perhaps getting a boyfriend was not such a good idea after all, yes? Nevertheless, he still had four more days to somehow convince Natalia that he was perfectly happy here; perfectly happy with someone, to be specific, and that she really ought to grow out of this obsession of hers.

That was what started this whole thing in the first place; she had insisted in her e-mails that her brother needed someone, namely her, to stay there to accompany him, and to watch after him. If he could convince her otherwise, then she would go back home to Russia instead of doing something like insisting on staying with him; he would be safe from being stalked by his own sister, and then–

And then what?

Ivan blinked. He never gave much thought about what exactly he would do next.

His thoughts were interrupted when his phone beeped; he checked it to find a message from Gilbert, asking on his whereabouts. He decided to call instead of texting back.

"Gilbert?"

"Where the hell are you? You said you wanted to meet up at lunch."

"Sorry, I must have lost track of time, yes?"

"You shouldn't make someone awesome like me wait."

"Sorry, sorry. I'm in the washroom."

"Oh. Uh, you sick or something?"

"No, no! I'm not sick. I will be right there. Oh wait, is there anyone else with you right now?"

"Just Arthur and Antonio. Why?" Gilbert's reply sounded puzzled.

Ivan closed his eyes and swallowed his pride. "Could you ask one of them to come get me?" he asked plaintively.

* * *

**Additional notes:**

_зайчик_ - bunny


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 8**

Arthur Kirkland was not a fan of surprise. He liked it if things were in a set routine; it made life so much easier, in his opinion. While Gilbert had disrupted his usual daily schedule during the first stages of their friendship by dragging him off to do something at random moments, he soon discovered that there was still order in Gilbert's brand of chaos. Even though Arthur could never predict when Gilbert would haul him off to do some inane thing, he could usually guess what sort of activity Gilbert would insist on him participating from the day itself.

Mondays, Gilbert would try to persuade him to skip class to pull off some awful prank on some poor soul. Tuesdays, perhaps ask him to go somewhere after school (with Gilbert insisting that Arthur pay if they went to eat, the cheap bastard) or just kill time at the music store. Wednesdays would mean hanging out in Gilbert's room, playing one of Gilbert's football video games – or rather, _he _would play, while Gilbert would just sneak off to copy his homework – or bidding on eBay for football jerseys and random cute things that caught Gilbert's eye. Thursdays, Fridays and weekends Gilbert would leave him alone, except for band practice, since both of them would rather do other things like watching their football teams' games on the TV.

All this of course, was subject to another important factor, namely if Antonio and Francis had ditched Gilbert and he was feeling bored (and possibly lonely, but Arthur suspected Gilbert would rather disembowel himself than admit it), and wanted someone to share his so-called awesome presence.

The past few weeks however, saw a break in Gilbert's pattern of habits. Except for that attempt of persuading him to go hang out somewhere after school (and on a Wednesday!) some time ago, Gilbert had not bothered Arthur at all, choosing to spend most of his time with that Ivan Braginski. While Arthur had been just as surprised as the other students in school when he first heard that both of them were going out, he was not opposed to the relationship. He was secretly glad; since Gilbert was spending time with Ivan, that would mean Gilbert would quit pestering him.

Therefore, it was a surprise when Gilbert dragged him and Antonio to lunch, for Arthur thought Gilbert would rather spend time alone with his boyfriend. "I just know you missed my awesomeness," Gilbert had declared as Arthur rolled his eyes and allowed himself to be pulled by his arm to the cafeteria. At least that annoying Francis was nowhere in sight; apparently he had a lunch date with some girl, according to Antonio.

"Where's Ivan?" Arthur asked.

Gilbert frowned as he typed a message on his phone. "He's supposed to meet us at the cafeteria." A few moments passed before the phone rang and Gilbert answered the call. Judging from the conversation, it was Ivan, Arthur thought.

"Well, what did he say?" Arthur asked when Gilbert hung up.

"He's in the washroom. And uh, he wants one of you to go and get him," Gilbert said, puzzled.

"Is he stuck?" Antonio wondered.

_"Stuck how?"_

"I don't know, maybe he fell in–"

"I'll get him," Arthur quickly interrupted before the conversation turned into something that could threaten his mental health.

"You do that," Gilbert said, waving one hand in a gesture of dismissal.

"Remind me why am I friends with you in the first place?" Arthur asked dryly.

Gilbert shrugged. "Because I'm awesome and you know it."

Arthur snorted.

A few minutes later Arthur found himself standing outside the boys' washroom. Feeling more than just a tad ridiculous, he knocked on the door. "Ivan? It's me, Arthur," he said cautiously before he opened the door and walked inside. Arthur had always found Ivan rather intimidating, which was why the sight of the Russian sitting on the countertop with a sheepish smile, puzzled him. If he did not know better, he would say that Ivan looked... nervous?

"Sorry to trouble you, yes?"

"Were you locked in or something?"

"No, no! It's just – oh, never mind. But tell me, was there a girl outside, waiting? Tall, blonde, and maybe a bit scary-looking? Wears a bow on her hair?"

Arthur shook his head; he could not recall seeing anyone matching that description. "No, why?" This was getting stranger and stranger.

Ivan let out an obvious sigh of relief. "Oh, nothing. We should go now, yes? Don't want to keep Gilbert waiting!"

Both of them then headed for the cafeteria. Ivan was busy looking this way and that, as if he were keeping an eye out for this girl he talked about, adding more to Arthur's curiosity. It was just on the tip of his tongue to ask why was the Russian so worried about this mysterious girl, but since Ivan might take offence at him prying – not to mention that Ivan was a whole lot bigger than he was – he kept his mouth shut.

His curious thoughts kept him so occupied that he failed to notice they were being followed.

--x--

Gilbert noted that the atmosphere was a little awkward at first, since unlike his awesome self, his two friends were quite unaccustomed to Ivan's presence. Arthur was probably intimidated, while Antonio seemed a little unsure of himself, even though he still had a smile on his face. The conversation at their table in the cafeteria was not as lively as Gilbert had expected. Still, give his friends some time and they would get used to having Ivan around, and they probably would have, if it were not for the interruption.

"Excuse me."

At the very sound of that female voice, Antonio clung in panic to an understandably confused Arthur, while Ivan yelped and squished himself behind Gilbert. Later on Gilbert would have thought that it just had to be a miracle or an unexplainable scientific anomaly that the taller and bigger Russian boy somehow managed to hide behind him, but at least the situation certainly proved his claim that his awesomeness _was_ indeed bigger than anything. At the moment however, he could only snort and nearly choke on his lunch in surprise.

"I can see you, brother," Natalia said calmly once she walked to stand in front of the group's table.

Ivan slowly uncurled himself and peeked from behind Gilbert's shoulder. "Hello, Natalia. What are you doing here? I was going to take you around the town after school."

"I'm sorry, but I was bored. So I went to your school. You sure have many _friends,_ don't you Vanya?" she said, eyeing the small group. The peculiar way she pronounced 'friends' made the temperature dive at least a few degrees.

Antonio made his excuses with an obviously fake smile plastered on his face, before he bodily hauled a still-confused Arthur away with him, mumbling, "Don't look back, it could mean certain death!"

Gilbert would have gone along with them, if it were not for Ivan's grip on his hand. He just wanted to make sure they were okay. Yeah. He was not afraid of Ivan's kid sister, no.

"Maybe you could show me around the school?" Natalia asked. "Just the two of us. I am sure your... _boyfriend_ will need to go to his classes."

"Yeah," Gilbert said, "lunch's almost over anyway." He stood up and Ivan followed suit, still standing behind him.

"Of course," Ivan said, smiling, but his grip on Gilbert's hand only tightened. Gilbert tugged and tugged, trying to jerk free, but to no avail.

"Let go!" Gilbert hissed softly, but Ivan merely smiled, making Gilbert feel like punching his boyfriend in the face.

Fortunately for both of them, Francis came to their rescue, albeit unintentionally. The blond strolled in the cafeteria, failing to notice Natalia, who had her back to him. "Hello, everyone! I cannot believe that I was stood up! Why, Gilbert, Ivan, I see that you – _eeep!"_ He shrieked when Natalia turned to look at him.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Ivan ran for it, dragging Gilbert with him.

--x--

Gilbert knew a lot of good places to hide in school; hideouts were always useful for pulling off awesome pranks, after all. Not many people knew of his hideouts except for perhaps his partners in crime Antonio and Francis, and maybe Ludwig, who was capable of sniffing his older brother out no matter where he hid, especially after he had committed some outrageous stunt.

So when Ivan ran off to find a place to hide from his sister, Gilbert had guided the Russian to a tiny janitor's storage room on the third floor of the school building. He doubted that anyone would find them there, since it was in a rather secluded part of the wing. Nevertheless, it could not hurt to be careful, especially since Natalia had proven herself to be an expert at finding her older brother, making Gilbert come to the conclusion that it was probably a trait all younger siblings possessed.

Gilbert's nose was still smarting – snorting lettuce and mustard out of your nose was _not_ an awesome experience – and damn it, with all the equipment in it and Ivan's bigger build, the tiny room was a tight fit for both of them. Ivan had to find standing room amidst a bunch of mops and brushes, while Gilbert was leaning against the Russian at a somewhat odd angle in order to avoid hitting his head against some shelves.

"How long do we have to hide anyway? This is not awesome," Gilbert grumbled.

"Hopefully only a little while, yes? If she can't find us soon, she would probably think we have gone home."

"You hope."

"Shh! That is a wedding march being hummed, it must be her!" Ivan whispered.

Footsteps, then Natalia's voice. "Vanya?" she said loudly; the girl was probably just a few feet away from the door. Gilbert held his breath, and let it out in relief after a long, torturous moment. Natalia's footsteps had faded away, indicating that she had moved elsewhere.

"Think it is safe to come out?" Ivan whispered.

"Let's give it a few more minutes. I can't believe I'm doing this, hiding in here. Hiding from a _girl."_

"But you have to protect me, yes?"

Gilbert scowled. "Only reason I'm doing this, you big pansy."

Minutes passed before Gilbert grumbled about his awkward position and how he was getting a crick in his neck. In response, Ivan leaned further back and adjusted his hold, so that Gilbert was in a more comfortable position. And... _whoa. _Gilbert blinked, then smirked when he was pressed closer to Ivan. Since they could be here for a little while and there was no chance of anyone finding them – _carpe diem_ and all that shit.

"Is that the Kremlin in your pocket or are you just really happy to see me?"

Ivan giggled again. "I can barely see you in here. It's so dark!"

"Who says you need to see?" he replied softly, then nipped at Ivan's neck.

_"Зайчик?"_

"No one's gonna find us here. So shut up," Gilbert mumbled before he pressed his lips to Ivan's, who was more than happy to respond. One kiss led to another, then another and then no one bothered to count, both determined to dominate the other. Gilbert grabbed a handful of Ivan's hair as they kissed, while Ivan ran one hand down his ass, and used the other hand to tug his shirt out to expose some skin. Gilbert let out a gasp when he felt Ivan's hands underneath his shirt, then mimicked the gesture, not wanting to lose out to the Russian.

Ivan's hands moved from running across Gilbert's chest and stomach to travel lower, unzipping his trousers. When those hands reached inside his underwear, Gilbert covered his mouth, determined not to let out a moan. Sure, he had done this to himself, but the sensation was different with someone else doing it to him, since he had no control over how he was being touched. And fucking hell did it feel good; Ivan's long fingers stroked him, teased him, and it wasn't long before Gilbert came rather messily in Ivan's hand with a loud groan, his face buried in Ivan's chest.

Still breathing heavily, he looked up to find Ivan with a rather smug smile on his face. Gilbert was about to do something about that superior expression when the door swung wide open, revealing an annoyed, then extremely shocked Ludwig.

"Oh, shit," Gilbert muttered when his brother hit the floor in an ungainly heap without as much as a panicked sputter. "Did we kill him?"

--x--

"Will you be okay?" Ivan asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm just gonna take my brother home. He doesn't look too good," Gilbert said. Just to prove his point, Ludwig made an odd-sounding whimper. The younger boy was already two shades paler than usual; making him almost as pale as Gilbert. "You go back to class. Your sister's probably gone by now anyway."

"I'll tell the teachers that you had to get your sick brother home," Ivan said, nodding. He looked as if he wanted to give Gilbert the customary peck on the cheek, but after the shock Ludwig just had, he decided against giving the poor boy more mental trauma and settled for a quick wave instead.

"Dammit West, you'd think after watching all that porn you've stashed under your bed, you'd be used to stuff like that by now," Gilbert half-teased, half-grumbled as he led his brother away. Under other circumstances, he would have been pissed off with his younger brother, but at least this time Ludwig had the courtesy to barge in _after_ they actually got something done, and _damn_ the look on Ludwig's face before he fainted from the shock was just too funny.

"T-that's different!" Ludwig protested, blushing furiously. "The people in those DVDs aren't _you!"_

Gilbert stared at him in mock amazement and continued to tease, "Wait, so you're saying you _want _your big bro in a porn? Shit, how did my little brother get this kinky–"

_"No!_ I certainly do not, and can we _please_ drop the subject?" Ludwig made that odd whimper again.

"Hell no, I'm not dropping it. This is fun! Besides, that's what you get for agreeing to some stupid teacher's request to go find me so he can yell at me for a few hours."

"I hate you."

"No, you don't," Gilbert said, smirking evilly, "I'm just too awesome."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 9**

Ludwig wiped the bathroom mirror for the last time and stared at his reflection in the shiny, clean surface. Satisfied that it was cleaned and sanitised to perfection, he put away his sponge. He hummed as he started sorting out the haphazard mess of toiletries on the counter; Gilbert's stuff arranged on the left, his on the right. At the same time he made a mental note to have a word later with Gilbert about his brother's choice of toothpaste because _really_, using kiddie orange-flavoured ones at his age.

_Hang on._

Ludwig's eyes narrowed at the disturbance in his perfect order of things.

Where was his electric shaver? Did Gilbert decide to do something really 'awesome' – namely inane – and use it for one of his stupid pranks? Or had accidentally thrown it out in a fit of... of something really dumb?

No, he decided, it was far too important to Gilbert to be put to any kind of abuse. His brother had grumbled many, many times on the subject; why must he, first thing in the morning, drag a small yet deathly sharp implement all over his face while still half-asleep and having the manual dexterity of a three-toed sloth? Personally Ludwig never had to deal with nicks and cuts from shaving, being one of the rare few of the male population who had perfect awareness upon waking up in the morning, but he understood why Gilbert had been happier than he was when he received that electric shaver for Christmas. He did not object to his brother using it, provided that Gilbert returned it to its proper spot afterward. While usually Gilbert did, or at least, left the shaver somewhere on the counter, today was not the case. A quick search for it in the bathroom bore no results, leaving him annoyed and puzzled.

Easy Ludwig, he told himself, now just think. Apply Gilbert's logic to this problem!

He thought for a moment and then went to his brother's room; sure enough, he found the missing shaver under Gilbert's bed. Next to... what was this?

Carelessly tossed under the bed was one of Kiku's dating sims. Ludwig had never played any of them, since the whole concept never interested him. When Kiku first lent the games to him, he had declined, saying that he did not understand Japanese, but Kiku later simply gave him ones with English or German patches. After that he just kept the games for about a week or two before he returned them, making comments like 'they were interesting' or maybe 'the graphics were quite good', and Kiku was usually too polite to inquire further.

But that was just him digressing; more importantly, why was Gilbert playing Kiku's dating sims? Ludwig knew his brother occasionally borrowed some of the adult DVDs stowed under his bed, but he never suspected that Gilbert had also tried out the dating games he hid there. Oh well, he would just ask about that later. He shrugged and put the game back under the bed before he returned to the bathroom with the shaver and then resumed his interrupted cleaning.

Some time passed before Gilbert poked his head in the bathroom and frowned at the sight of Ludwig cleaning the shower stall. "Hey West, are you cleaning because you're being an OCD freak, or because you're all antsy about something again?" he asked.

"I'm not upset," Ludwig grumbled, "and stop calling me an OCD freak just because I like to keep things neat and clean."

"Neat and clean is one thing, but arranging bathroom products according to alphabetical order is just fucking mental and you know it." Gilbert stared at his younger brother with undisguised suspicion. "You _sure_ you're not upset?"

Ludwig threw the sponge at him. "Very sure."

Gilbert caught the sponge with a smirk. "Because you know, if you're _still_ freaked out about seeing me and Ivan yesterday – hey!" He barely managed to dodge the thrown spray bottle of cleaner.

_"Now _I'm upset. I've been trying to forget that, thank you so much!"

Gilbert grinned. "Just checking."

"So are you just worried about my mental health, or do you actually want something?"

"Your big brother is proud to announce that his awesome food's done. Let's eat."

"And the state of the kitchen?" Ludwig asked wryly.

Gilbert had volunteered to cook dinner tonight; an extremely rare occasion, which was why Ludwig had agreed to his brother's offer, just to make sure he was not dreaming it all up. In truth, Gilbert was not too bad in the kitchen. Some of his dishes even tasted better than Ludwig's. Alas, he could never remember how they turned out that way; while Ludwig measured exact quantities of ingredients according to the recipe, Gilbert used seasonings on instinct. Unfortunately, the price for Gilbert's cooking was that he would leave the kitchen in such a mess that sometimes Ludwig felt the massive cleanup required afterward was just not worth it.

Gilbert shrugged. "Hey, you enjoy cleaning up so much, I left that part for you to handle."

"You could help, you know," Ludwig grumbled as he followed his brother down the stairs. He would finish the bathroom later. Probably after he tackled the disaster that awaited in the kitchen.

"Do I get pancakes in the morning?" Gilbert asked, grinning as he led the way to the kitchen.

Ludwig simply snorted in response. He seated himself at the table – no, _don't _look at the sink or the counter, he already knew that they looked like a major battleground between assorted crockery and leftover ingredients, just enjoy the meal first, _dammit_ – and helped himself to the food. After some time he decided that yes, dinner was indeed worth the cleanup. "What did you do with the potato salad? It's good."

"I gave it a big dose of awesome."

"Ha. So why are you home and not eating out with your boyfriend?" he asked, and had the satisfaction of seeing Gilbert's cheeks turn a bit pink.

"That Winter guy he's staying with is taking him and his sister out to dinner. Ivan invited me along, but I figured I'd rather stay home and make sure my brother is okay. Besides, I bet he misses having his cool big brother around at home."

Ludwig rolled his eyes.

"Why'd you ask?"

Go on, say it, _say it,_ say that you're worried, he mentally screamed to himself, but what came out from his mouth instead was a mumbled, "Just wondering. He has a sister?"

"Yeah. Kinda pretty. I'd hook you up with her, but I'm not cruel enough to do that to you, not even for a good laugh."

"What?" he asked, confused.

Gilbert sniggered. "God, you look so cute when you do that. Maybe I _should_ introduce you to her."

"No thanks. So... uh, so how come Ivan can afford paying for all the stuff whenever you guys go out?" Not to mention all the stuff he's giving you, Ludwig silently added. His brother had shown him the drumsticks Ivan gave him, and Antonio had let it slip that one or two of Gilbert's newest video games were also courtesy of the Russian. "Students like us aren't exactly rolling in money. Are all Russians really rich or something?" he asked, then winced. That was lame, but it was the only thing he could think of.

"His family's in the oil business or something. Not the so-fucking-rich-let's-buy-a-football-club kind of rich though." Gilbert eyed him. "You're full of questions tonight."

"Oh. Just curious, that's all." Ludwig thought that certainly made more sense than the rumours regarding Ivan's links with the _Mafiya_ or international arms trafficking he heard at school. After all, surely someone with a shady background would not be selected for an international student exchange program, right? He was almost ashamed that he had actually considered the possibility that the rumours were true.

The conversation moved on to other subjects; Gilbert denied that he played any of Kiku's dating sims nor would he change his brand of toothpaste, while Ludwig repeatedly refused his brother's offer to show him how to 'make him more awesome'. The brothers soon finished eating and Gilbert left the table to play some video game in his room, leaving Ludwig to undo the messy disaster he left behind.

Ludwig entertained his thoughts as he did the dishes; sure, everything seemed all right. Gilbert kept his promise of skipping only one class a week; Ivan was not involved in some international criminal enterprise; Gilbert was obviously more than quite content with his relationship with the Russian; and apart from that one fight at school, Gilbert had stopped pulling off ridiculous stunts or pranks.

Everything _should_ be all right.

So why couldn't he shake away this uneasy feeling that there was more to it all, and that something was about to happen?

--x--

Nuts to those Hollywood spy movies, Ivan decided, the Russian ones about the SVR and the GRU were a whole lot better, yes? They taught him more about evading pursuers than their American counterparts. He had taken the bus crisscrossing town, double-backed several times to check if he were being followed, and on one occasion, made a rather spirited leap over someone's tall fence. And he didn't even need to wear those funny sunglasses that seemed to be a standard for people in Hollywood action films.

All these complicated precautions! Rather tiring and not to mention annoying, but nevertheless necessary, because he, and very likely Gilbert and Ludwig, did _not_ want Natalia to discover where his boyfriend lived.

Natalia's unhealthy obsession with him seemed to have increased tenfold, probably due to the considerable period of being apart from her precious big brother. She clung to him at almost very single available opportunity and stalked him to a degree that simply terrified him. She shadowed him everywhere he went, even at home. He had turned so paranoid he found himself checking the lock on the door at least twice every time he went to take a shower, and even resorted to covering the small bathroom window with a spare towel after a nightmare he had of Natalia peeking in.

Ivan frowned.

Was it really a nightmare? Or what if–

Ivan shook his head, trying to clear it of any frightening and disturbing thoughts. He supposed that the only thing that refrained Natalia from doing anything drastic like literally clawing on the door to his room at night, or wrenching off the doorknob and bursting in, was the fact that she was a guest in Mr. Winter's home. Natalia may be scary – yes? _Yes! Definitely!_ – but she also respected a good host, and demolishing Mr. Winter's home or traumatising the poor man was just not proper. This did not however, keep him from staying in his room and locking the door if the unsuspecting Mr. Winter were not around.

Satisfied that he was not being followed, he quickly headed for the Beilschmidt home. He heard the distinct sound of drums. Strange, Gilbert did not say that the band would be practicing today. Would it be all right to walk in? Perhaps it would not hurt just to take a peek, since the garage door was up. He quickened his pace and quietly approached the garage.

Three of the band's members, including his boyfriend, were in the garage, too occupied with what they were doing to notice him. Antonio and Arthur were playing on a board game. Arthur seemed to be winning, since Antonio wailed, 'You sunk my battleship!' and drooped. Gilbert was busy playing on his drums.

Ivan was pleased to see that Gilbert was using the black drumsticks he gave as a present. The sales clerk at the music store had been very helpful in assisting Ivan pick out a suitable gift; the man had remembered Gilbert's preferences for drumsticks since the boy was a regular visitor at the store.

Ivan watched and listened as Gilbert played, fascinated at how quickly his hands furiously moved back and forth hitting snare, cymbals, tomtoms, while his feet tapped on the pedals for the kick drum and the hi-hat. It was obvious from the focused, yet content look on Gilbert's face that the boy really enjoyed playing the drums. Ivan was so absorbed in watching Gilbert play that he did not even notice he was clapping when Gilbert was done with his piece.

"How long have you been standing there?" Gilbert asked.

"Am I disturbing your band practice?" Ivan inquired, mindful of Gilbert's previous warning about any interruptions. "I was not sure if it would be all right to come inside."

Gilbert shook his head. "No, we're not practicing. We're just hanging out. Francis isn't here anyway. He said he had a date or something. Maybe a good thing too, since Arthur wanted us to try out a new and probably boring song from one of his many boring English bands."

Arthur harrumphed as he sunk Antonio's battleship again. "Oh, 'boring', he says," Arthur grumbled, while Antonio moaned in defeat, "he hasn't even heard it!"

"Hey, it has to be boring, if the band's got a lame-ass name like Steel Chick–"

_"Iron Maiden!"_ Arthur snapped.

"Whatever."

"The tune you were playing just now. What was it, yes?" Ivan asked.

"That drum solo? Oh, it's Led Zeppelin's _Moby Dick_. Awesome, huh?" Gilbert answered, then grinned. "Want me to play some more?"

"Led Zeppelin's English, you know," Arthur pointed out with a rather smug smile on his face.

Gilbert sputtered unintelligibly before he retorted, "Fine, so I'll just play _Cobwebs and Strange_ next!"

"The Who. English."

"Argh!"

Ivan coughed politely in a bid for attention. "Excuse me," he said, "I was wondering. I have not seen the band perform. So who sings?"

"I do, most of the time. Otherwise it'd be Francis, but usually he sings backup. Arthur only sings if he feels like it, or if the song's from a UK band," Antonio answered.

"Doesn't Gilbert sing?" When both Antonio and Arthur shook their heads furiously, Ivan asked, "Why not?"

"They're just jealous of my awesome voice," Gilbert supplied.

Arthur made a choking sort of noise, while Antonio just snickered. "I think you need to hear Gilbert's singing for yourself to understand, Ivan," Antonio said.

Gilbert brightened. "You guys want to hear me sing? Let's see... oh, I know. I'll sing Die Ärzte's _Junge_ – that's a good tune."

"Just the chorus," Arthur pleaded. _"Please."_

"Fine." Gilbert took a deep breath, then started to sing.

Arthur got as far as the second line before he abandoned any pretence of civility and covered his ears with his hands as he grimaced. Antonio still had the decency to smile, but the gesture was obviously lacking in sincerity since he winced every few seconds. At any rate, the most optimistic thing to be said about Gilbert's singing was that what he lacked in vocal skills, he made up with his enthusiasm.

"Well?" Gilbert asked expectantly after he was done.

Ivan clapped his hands. "You sound wonderful!" he said, while the other two listeners rolled their eyes.

"Wonderful, his boyfriend's tone deaf too," Arthur grumbled softly.

"Shh, Arthur! He's just so into our Gilbert. Not to mention that he wants to get into Gilbert's pants!" Antonio cheerfully announced.

The thrown drumstick hit Antonio right in the forehead.

--x--

Gilbert was glad once his band-mates left him and Ivan in peace. Arthur had enough sense to excuse himself and go home, but good old oblivious Antonio didn't. Fortunately Gilbert was spared the effort required to forcibly remove his friend from the premises since Arthur had yanked Antonio by the collar and dragged him away.

"So when is your sister going back home?" Gilbert asked as he handed Ivan a can of soft drink from the fridge.

"Soon," Ivan answered. "She is thinking of extending her visit–"

"Oh god."

"–but I am trying to convince her otherwise."

"You do that."

"I'm doing my best! I think my efforts seem to be working too. And speaking of younger siblings, where is your brother anyway?"

"Out getting some groceries. Why?"

Ivan smiled. "Ah, that means we're alone in the house, yes?"

"Bet you West'll come bursting in the moment we even start anything fun."

"Oh, really?" Ivan chuckled and put his soda on the kitchen table. "Shall we test your theory?" he said as he started to put his hands around his boyfriend's waist.

Right on cue, Ludwig stomped into the kitchen. "Gilbert, did you walk the dogs? I was busy this – _aah!" _The younger boy gave an odd little shriek of surprise and dropped the bags he carried on the floor. "Oh. Oh, you guys aren't... um, never mind," he added quickly, blushing furiously as he started to pick up the bags.

"Told you," Gilbert said wryly to Ivan, who promptly began giggling like a loon.

* * *

**Additional notes:**

_Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki (SVR)_ - Russian external inteligence service

_Glavnoye Razvedyvatelnoye Upravleniye _(GRU) - Russia's external military intelligence service


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 10**

School ended for the day without any creepy stalker-related incidents, although Gilbert was a bit disappointed that Ivan had a rather full day of classes and thus had barely enough time to see him. Not that he missed the Russian or anything, he told himself. No. He just did not want anything to happen to his provider of free food and entertainment, that was all. Yep.

Ivan had asked him to wait at the gate when school was over, saying that he had some important news. Francis was already there when he arrived, and his friend had somehow dragged Arthur along. Apparently Antonio had some important news to tell them all. In the meantime, Francis decided that as they waited he might as well point out to Gilbert that while his sense of clothing had improved, his hair was still a mess.

"It's an _awesome_ mess," Gilbert retorted.

"Spoken like someone with no sense of style."

Arthur was ignoring them both, busy writing in one of his notebooks as he sat on the low brick wall. Occasionally he absently bit on his pen in thought. Gilbert knew that Arthur was the sort who did his homework as quickly as he could, even in school, so he would able to spend the later part of his day practising on his guitar to his heart's content.

"Hey, is that our Biology homework for the day? Can I have a look after you're done?" Gilbert asked, smirking.

"Sod off," Arthur said, at the same time flipping him the V-sign.

"Ah Gilbert, it seems that your charms are not working on our Arthur," Francis said mockingly.

"Fine, then _you_ do something about it, lover boy," Gilbert dared him.

Arthur's eyes narrowed.

Francis feigned a shocked gasp. "And risk the wrath of the almighty His Englishness? Dear me!" he exclaimed in a ghastly imitation of Arthur's accent.

Arthur muttered something about how it was a pity certain people did not perish when they were children and instead were allowed to grow up into annoying smarmy bastards.

"Did His Englishness say something? Or is he simply tongue-tied and awestruck by my superior and handsome presence?"

"Oh, _that_ was a _costly_ one," Arthur murmured in a tone so cold it practically froze Francis's vocal chords.

_"Gilbert! Francis!"_

Both of them froze at that familiar tone and braced themselves for the inevitable. Antonio sped into sight, running towards the two boys and skidded to a stop before crushing them both in a spirited hug. Arthur merely raised one eyebrow before he shrugged and resumed writing.

"Antonio! Let go!" Francis managed to gasp out over Antonio's shoulder. Gilbert was not so lucky; his face was practically buried in Antonio's chest and he could only manage a muffled curse as he thumped Antonio in the ribs with a clenched fist.

"But Francis," Antonio wailed, oblivious to his slowly suffocating friends, "something horrible just happened!"

Francis pried himself free from Antonio's grip and grabbed the upset boy's hands so Gilbert could pull away, gasping for breath. "Why? What happened?" he asked, worried. Antonio was not easily shaken. For him to be this upset a total disaster must have taken place.

"I asked Lovi out and he said no!"

Or that.

Gilbert rolled his eyes. "He does that all the time!"

"This time's _different!_ He said yes at first!" Antonio protested.

That caught even Arthur's attention. "Wait, he said yes, and then he changed his mind?" he asked, homework forgotten for the moment.

Antonio nodded furiously. "I don't know what happened! I asked him out just now and he finally agreed. Then we were just talking to some of his classmates and suddenly he started yelling before he punched me in the nose!"

"Did you say anything to make him angry?" Francis asked.

Antonio shook his head. "I don't think so! He just introduced me to his classmate and his brother. Then I said hi to them and thought that his brother Feli was cuter than he was–"

Gilbert howled in laughter, while Francis groaned. Arthur merely rolled his eyes and resumed doing his homework.

"Why? What did I do?" Antonio wondered.

"You idiot! You said you thought his brother was cuter than him? Right in front of him?" Francis threw his hands in the air in a gesture of frustration.

"Well yeah, because it is true... what did I do wrong?"

Gilbert wiped away his tears of amusement. "Oh god," he gasped, "and you said _I _was hopeless?"

"Actually Gilbert, he said you were pitiful, but I do agree with you," Francis corrected.

Gilbert started sniggering. "Antonio, you're really amazing, you know that?"

"But Gilbert," Antonio whined and since the platinum blond was still in easy reach, grabbed him and drew him into a crushing embrace again, "now Lovi hates me and–"

"Get away from him!"

Antonio let out an exclamation of surprise as Ivan grabbed him by his shirt from behind and roughly shoved him away from Gilbert; he would have crashed to the ground if it were not for Francis, who somehow managed to catch him before he fell.

"What do you think you're doing?" the Russian hissed.

"Huh? But I was just–" Antonio began to protest as he got to his feet, confused, but also slightly alarmed.

"What the hell do _you_ think you're doing?" Gilbert snapped and grabbed Ivan's arm, preventing him from moving closer to Antonio.

"He was crushing you!"

"Antonio's like that all the time with everyone, you moron!" Gilbert yelled, glaring at Ivan, who now looked somewhat unsure of himself.

"Oh, don't worry about it. No harm done, right?" Antonio said as he smiled and made a dismissive gesture with his hand, but it was obvious to everyone that he still looked a touch nervous. "I never thought Gilbert's boyfriend was the jealous type!"

"I... I thought.... Sorry," Ivan said lamely, twiddling his thumbs.

"Let's go," Gilbert growled and dragged Ivan away by the arm. "What the _fuck's _gotten into you?" he hissed once they were at a distance from the others. "First you're acting weird, now you're threatening my friends?"

"I'm sorry," Ivan repeated with a contrite look on his face, "I saw him holding you like that and I just thought...."

"Thought what?" Gilbert said impatiently.

"I was worried... that it was like that time you got sent to the infirmary, yes?"

Gilbert sighed. Great, did Ivan think he was going to start a fight with Antonio or something? "Look, Antonio's just being the sappy moron that he is. You leave my friends alone! They're a bunch of idiots, but they're all right. And for the last time, I can take care of myself! I don't need you to act like some fucking knight in shining armour! Got it?"

"Got it, yes," Ivan said softly, nodding. There was a long pause before he hesitated and asked, "Is Gilbert still angry with me?"

"Oh for – stop acting like a chick!" Gilbert groaned, grabbed Ivan's hand and led him away before they started to attract even more attention. He did not even care where he was going, he just wanted to get as far away from school as possible.

Ivan seemed to be enjoying the moment however, for he started humming softly, swinging their arms.

"Has anyone told you that you're bipolar?" Gilbert grumbled.

"What's bipolar?"

"Forget it. Now what was it you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh! Natalia is going home tomorrow!" Ivan said, beaming. "That is very good, yes?" Seeing Gilbert nod in agreement, he added, "I would like you to come with me tomorrow to the airport to see her off. _Please?"_

Gilbert resisted the urge to groan. He would rather _not_ see Natalia off; heck, he would rather not see Ivan's creepy kid sister _at all,_ but it was rather hard to say no to Ivan, who had the most pleading look on his face. And besides, Gilbert thought, he was the awesome one in this relationship, wasn't he? That meant he had to act as bodyguard to Ivan, right?

Right. Fuck.

"Sure," he replied.

"Wait, I just remembered. There is something else you should know too!" Ivan announced, smirking slightly.

"What?"

Ivan bent down to whisper in his ear, "Natalia and Mr. Winter are out and won't be back for a while. Want to come over?"

There was no way he could ignore that Ivan's thumb was lazily drawing circles on his palm and _damn_ if it wasn't turning him on. "Why not," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible, especially when it just occurred to him that since Natalia was out with Ivan's host parent, that meant they were using the car.

No car. That meant a long walk to Ivan's place.

_Fuck. _Maybe he could make Ivan get a taxi or something.

"Wait. Your brother doesn't know where I live, yes?" Ivan asked, sounding slightly worried.

Gilbert grinned. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't."

--x--

It took a great deal of control from Gilbert to stop himself from practically running to Ivan's place. Or even bodily hauling the Russian over his shoulder (sure, Ivan was bigger and heavier than him, but Gilbert was certain he would have managed it somehow since he was awesome) _and_ sprinting at full speed to the Winter residence.

It didn't help that Ivan kept doing some really interesting things to his hand; drawing little circles on his palm, stroking the inside of his wrist and at one point, caused him to almost let out a gasp when Ivan grazed a fingernail against his thumb – shit, _he_ didn't even know he was sensitive _there._

Ivan had a rather mischievous smirk then and Gilbert swore to himself that he would do something more spectacular to wipe that annoying expression off the Russian's face. It was not fair how he was slowly turning redder by the minute, but Ivan still looked rather childishly serene as always.

When they finally reached the house, he was scuffing his feet impatiently waiting for Ivan to deal with the lock. The moment they had stepped inside and Ivan closed the door, Gilbert threw his backpack on the floor and tugged the Russian down by the collar for a kiss, muffling Ivan's gasp of surprise.

The Russian promptly responded by sliding one arm around Gilbert's waist to pull the boy closer and used his other hand to gently tilt Gilbert's head to deepen the kiss. Still in the embrace, Ivan guided them further into the house, but Gilbert was far occupied with more important things like trying to make Ivan moan to pay any close attention to where he was being led, until he felt his legs brush against something.

He pulled away from the kiss so that Ivan could take a much-needed breath and glanced around to find that they were in the living room, and were standing just next to the couch. That was fine. He was far too impatient to head upstairs into Ivan's room anyway and besides, they had the house all to themselves, didn't they?

Ivan let out a giggle when Gilbert pushed him to lie down on the couch. "What's so funny?" Gilbert growled softly before he licked Ivan's right ear and nibbled briefly on the Russian's earlobe.

"It's just that – hee hee! – I like you when you're aggressive like this," Ivan said, then Gilbert had the satisifaction of hearing him let out a breathy moan when the platinum blond started to make little nips at his neck.

"You ain't seen nothing yet," Gilbert said, tugging Ivan's shirt out and then running his hands down his boyfriend's exposed sides. Smirking, he unzipped Ivan's trousers and slowly worked both trousers and underwear down.

Ivan opened his mouth to say something, but any words dwindled into a low groan as Gilbert experimentally ran his tongue across Ivan's exposed member. Fuelled by a combination of curiosity, lust and bravado, Gilbert took Ivan deeper in his mouth, taking it slowly to overcome his gag reflex. He closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on the job. He thought that having this done to him would be awesome, but for some reason doing it was a strangely awesome experience as well; he was growing harder in response to Ivan's reactions. Ivan's caressing hands in his hair and Ivan's gasps and moans encouraged him even further as he found himself licking and sucking harder and it was not long before Ivan tensed, and then came in his mouth. Lack of experience left him not really prepared, so it was a rather messy affair, he thought as he wiped his mouth, trying to curbe the urge to spit and gag.

Ivan seemed more than happy with it however, for the Russian's eyes darkened and he let out a low growl. Ivan sharply tugged him up by the shoulders and kissed him rather hungrily for a very long while before the Russian rolled them over so that Gilbert was lying on the couch, pinned down by his bigger bulk.

It did not take long for Ivan to get rid of Gilbert's jacket and then to unbutton Gilbert's shirt. Gilbert shivered when he felt Ivan's cool hands trailing down his sides and back, and then he let out a soft hiss when Ivan started kissing his throat.

"Nice?" Ivan asked gently.

"Mm-hmm," Gilbert mumbled, tilting his head back and to the side a little, allowing Ivan better access to his neck. Ivan then slowly, gently ran his teeth across Gilbert's Adam's apple, causing him to involuntarily squirm in pleasure.

Gilbert closed his eyes and slid his arms around Ivan's shoulders and neck, as he enjoyed Ivan's ministrations on his throat, then his collarbone. One particular sharp nip made him gasp and open his eyes.

He froze.

Standing right there in the doorway was Ivan's sister. Natalia was glaring at them both, her eyes bright and her shoulders trembling in rage, her cheeks red in a mixture of embarrassment and fury.

"Shit!" he blurted as he tried to push Ivan off him. Ivan merely ignored his attempts and instead kissed him with a hunger so fierce, he was almost reluctant to pull away. "Stop it," he hissed, "your sister's here!"

"No, she's not," Ivan growled, shifting slightly in order to keep Gilbert pinned down with his heavier weight before he resumed his attention on the other boy's neck.

"Ivan, you stupid – mmmh!" Gilbert started to yell, but was silenced when Ivan kissed him again. He struggled ineffectually under Ivan's superior bulk. "Knock it off!" he snapped when he managed to pull away and lightly slugged Ivan in the side of his head. It was only a glancing blow, but it stunned Ivan long enough for Gilbert to roll out from under him.

"Damn, now where the hell did she go?" Gilbert swore as he stood and hastily put his clothing back into some semblance of order.

"What are you talking about?" Ivan said, not bothering to disguise his irritation as he sat up. "Natalia is not home. I told you!"

"I'm telling you, I saw her just standing there a moment ago!" Shit, what if she went to get a knife from the kitchen or something?

"Really?" Ivan tilted his head slightly as he looked at Gilbert. "Are you sure? Or are you just making excuses?"

Gilbert glared at him. "What the hell is _that _supposed to mean?"

Ivan shrugged. "Antonio said you have never done this before."

Gilbert's mouth opened and closed silently for a few moments before he found his voice. "I'm going to_ kill _that idiot!" he snarled, clenching his fists.

"Well if Natalia was here, she's probably gone now. We can just continue, yes?"

Gilbert stared at him. And end up getting stabbed with a knife? Was Ivan insane?

"Not if we're going to have an audience, and especially if that audience is your psycho kid sister!" Gilbert retorted before he stormed out of the house, pausing only to pick up his backpack on the floor before slamming the door shut behind him.

--x--

It was a while before Gilbert finally chose to answer his phone. Ivan thought he must have made at least fifty attempts before his boyfriend finally picked up the call.

"What?" Gilbert snapped.

"I'm sorry," Ivan said. He heard Gilbert give out a long sigh, and he knew from his rudimentary German that the other boy was counting one to five softly before the Russian heard his reply.

"Yeah, whatever."

"About tomorrow. You will still come with me to the airport to see Natalia off, yes?"

"Fine," Gilbert said with undisguised reluctance, but it was good enough for Ivan.

"Thank you. Goodnight."

"Yeah, night," Gilbert said before he hung up.

Ivan sighed and stared at his phone. Perhaps Gilbert would be in a better mood in the morning, yes? Oh well, Natalia would be going home tomorrow, so it did not matter much. Once his sister had gone home, everything would be back to normal, hopefully just as he planned it.

He gave out another sigh before he went to bed.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 11**

Ivan glanced at his two companions and resisted the urge to sigh.

The ride to the airport had been awkward enough; Gilbert uncharacteristically silent in the passenger seat (with a pouty lower lip, a clear sign that he was sulking), Natalia glaring daggers at the two older boys from the back. He had tried to lighten the mood by starting a conversation, but all his attempts merely received uninterested grunts or halfhearted replies.

The mood did not change when they arrived at the airport either. Gilbert still kept quiet as he helped Ivan with Natalia's luggage when they did her check-in at the counter; scary stalker tendencies or not, Natalia was still a girl, and had done quite a bit of shopping that she was going home with two bags instead of just the one she had when she came to visit. Natalia refused to meet Ivan's gaze, alternating between glaring at Gilbert and random innocent passersby, who would flinch and move further away from the strange blonde girl.

Oh well. Natalia would board her flight in a little while and once she was on the plane, all this unnecessary stress and awkwardness would go away, yes?

Gilbert shivered slightly, a gesture that puzzled him. Was the other boy cold, or was it just a reaction to his younger sister? Deciding it was quite possibly both, Ivan unwound the scarf around his neck and looped it loosely around Gilbert's neck and shoulders.

Gilbert looked up at him in surprise. "Thanks," he muttered.

"I'll go and get everyone something to drink while we wait, yes?" Ivan offered and left, not waiting for a reply.

He doubted that Natalia would try anything, since there were far too many witnesses. At least, he hoped so.

--x--

Gilbert silently called Ivan every single expletive he knew of for leaving him with the other boy's creepy little sister for company.

He risked a quick glance and found that Natalia had the most annoyed expression on her face. Deciding that trying to start a conversation would quite probably be suicidal, he jammed his hands inside his pockets and tried to look interested in the flight board.

Huh. They still had quite a while before Natalia would have to leave to go through immigration, then board her flight. Brilliant. He sighed and resigned himself to uncomfortable silence, then nearly jumped in surprise when Natalia spoke to him.

"So he really does care for you," she said. Strangely enough, her tone sounded slightly resigned... and less hostile? She continued, "You are wearing his scarf. That scarf is his favourite. He has never given it to me to wear."

He stared at her.

"I did not believe him at first," she said, looking coldly at him,"when my brother said in his e-mails that he had found someone here. Someone special, just like I am special. I told him that no one could ever compare to me. No one."

"Huh?"

She ignored him. "But he is right," she said rather resentfully, "you are special. Your hair, skin, as pale and clear as mine. Even paler. Your eyes, almost like his. He knows that I am pretty, yes? But you are almost as pretty as I am."

As much as Gilbert detested being called 'pretty', the recollection of a certain conversation regarding Natalia breaking the fingers of a boy she disliked guided him into making the wise decision of keeping his mouth shut. Not that he was afraid of Ivan's psycho stabbity-stab-stab kid sister or anything. No. It was simply because it was not awesome to pick fights with girls. Yep.

"At first, I thought that perhaps my brother simply forced you into this. Pretend that you were his boyfriend, yes? He's very, very good at that, making some of our cousins do things for him, even though they did not want to. But I have found that your reactions to him are... honest. You certainly did not look... coerced into what you did yesterday," she added, her cheeks turning slightly scarlet.

Oh. _That. _Gilbert could feel his face growing warmer as well. So Natalia _was_ in the house and he had not imagined her presence then.

"So if you break his heart," Natalia hissed, "I will rip yours out and shove it down your throat. While you watch, yes? And do not think that I will not find out if you hurt him. I will always know everything about my brother. _Always."_

Gilbert made a noise that he decided was definitely not a nervous gulp before he nodded. "Got it."

Natalia offered him a grudging smile. "Good."

Ivan returned a few minutes later with coffee for all three of them; the Russian boy was pleasantly surprised to find that the mood had somewhat lightened. Even though Natalia still refused to talk to Gilbert, at least she was no longer glaring at him. She even started a conversation with her brother – wholly in Russian, but Gilbert did not care if he was left out this time – and time seemed to pass by quickly before she had to go.

She hugged her brother affectionately and kissed him on the cheeks, before turning to Gilbert. Gilbert – _and_ Ivan – were very surprised when she grudgingly offered him her hand. She did however, nearly crush his hand when he shook hers, but at least the pain was not as bad as that first time they met.

The two boys waved at her until she disappeared into the security and immigration checkpoint. The moment she was safely out of sight, Ivan let out such a long, relieved sigh that Gilbert could not help but laugh in amusement.

"You have no idea how glad I am that she's gone home!" Ivan exclaimed.

"I have a pretty good idea – hey!" Gilbert groaned when Ivan crushed him in a tight embrace. "You idiot, knock it off!" he growled, wriggling rather unsuccessfully in Ivan's stronger arms, while the people around them looked at the two boys with undisguised curiosity. It was only when he managed to thump Ivan in the sides with one fist did the Russian let go, albeit with a slightly disappointed, then annoyed look on his face.

"Why do you keep doing that?" Ivan asked rather crossly.

"Because you're being a sappy freak?" Gilbert retorted, then froze when he heard Ivan's soft reply. Oh no. He did not just say that. That fucking Russian did _not_ just say _that._

When he realised that he had not imagined it, he did the first thing that came across his mind.

He slugged Ivan right in the face.

--x--

Ludwig placed his books and notes in his backpack before he glanced at the clock on the wall. He still had enough time to get to his study group at Kiku's; he knew that Kiku appreciated punctuality as much as he did. He went downstairs and was about to open the front door when Gilbert came bursting in, swearing viciously.

"Gilbert! I thought you're out with your boyfriend," Ludwig said, startled.

"Well, obviously I'm not!" Gilbert growled as he stomped up the staircase and headed for his room. "And that freak can go fuck himself sideways for all I care!" he added before he slammed his door shut.

Ludwig blinked. What was going on? He glanced at his watch; if he did not leave now, he would be late for his study group. But Gilbert was obviously upset. And when Gilbert was upset, he was prone to doing some really stupid things that would drive Ludwig crazy.

The younger Beilschmidt decided that checking up on his sibling would be far more prudent than being late; Kiku would probably understand, or more likely, too polite to inquire further. He went upstairs and knocked on the door to Gilbert's room. "I'm coming in," he announced when there was no answer.

He opened the door to find Gilbert curled up on the bed, facing the wall as his brother clasped one of his huge stuffed pandas to his chest. Normally whenever Ludwig entered Gilbert's room he would make some comment about how his brother should really be more mature and cease buying random stuffed animals since the shelves were almost filled to bursting with them, but the sight of a very dejected Gilbert stopped him from doing so.

He sat down on the edge of the bed. "You... you okay?" he asked somewhat awkwardly. Normally Gilbert would be the one doing all the inquiring on current emotional states – not that Ludwig ever thought it was necessary, since Gilbert would usually come up with 'awesome' yet ridiculous responses to his answers – but at least his brother had a bit more practice at this.

Gilbert choked out a rather desperate-sounding laugh. "I'm fine," he mumbled, refusing to look at the younger boy.

Definitely _not_ fine, Ludwig decided. When Gilbert was hugging stuffed pandas, that probably meant something awful. "What happened?"

"We broke up," Gilbert muttered.

"Oh." That was all Ludwig could manage to utter in reply. He knew that he should probably say more, but he could not think of anything appropriate to say to his brother. "You sure?" he tried, then winced when he realised just how ridiculous that sounded.

Another one of those desperate laughs. "I fucking punched him, so yeah, I'm sure."

Ludwig remembered that when they were much younger, Gilbert used to hug him close and would pat his hair soothingly whenever he was upset, and that certainly calmed him. However, he certainly could not bring himself to do the same now, and he doubted that Gilbert would appreciate similar gestures anyway. Ludwig knew well enough that unless Gilbert was the one who initiated them, such things were deemed 'mushy' and 'not awesome'. He settled for giving his elder brother a clumsy pat on the shoulder, then hesitated a moment before he gave Gilbert's shoulder a gentle squeeze. That seemed to do the trick, since he felt Gilbert's tense shoulders relax slightly.

"I need to go to my study group, but if you want to...." Ludwig could not find the right words to finish. To what? To talk? To go hit Ivan a few more times because I would be more than happy to help? To cry?

He almost laughed. No, he corrected himself, Gilbert _never_ cried; even if he did, Ludwig knew that Gilbert would rather kill himself than let someone else see him in such a state. And Ludwig was almost certain that the other options were not quite applicable anyway. Even though _he _felt like finding a certain Russian exchange student to demand for an explanation, since Gilbert would be furious at him for meddling in the older boy's personal business.

Gilbert shook his head. "No, you go ahead. I'll be fine. What the hell do you take me for, some – some stupid angsty girl about to cry into dehydration?"

Ludwig ignored that final remark. "Sure?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine! Hell, I'm awesome all by my lonesome!" Gilbert declared, but Ludwig thought his brother sounded less sure of himself.

"Okay," Ludwig said softly before he got up and went out of the room. He left the house several minutes later for his study group, after making sure that there was a tub of ice cream in the fridge.

And he would make pancakes for breakfast in the morning.

--x--

"It doesn't matter now," he had said at the airport.

Fuck.

"I guess we don't need to see each other anymore, yes?"

And he fucking said it with such fucking_ cheerful indifference_.

Fuck fuck _fuck._

At first Gilbert had not quite understood what Ivan meant. Then he thought he had just imagined it all, or maybe he was having one of those really strange dreams he would get if he ate one of Francis' weird cheeses before bed, but that look on Ivan's face was too _real. _

It had not been hard for Gilbert to put it all together; Ivan's rather unusual way of making advances at him, then _spoiling_ him, and of course, Natalia's somewhat odd conversation with him before she left. He had not quite understood at first why she had said all those things about her brother finding someone special quite like her, how she first thought he was being coerced into the relationship. And then of course, Ivan's words to him after she left to board her plane.

Confusion then gave way to comprehension.

Ivan simply used him to get rid of Natalia. And now that Natalia was gone, Ivan no longer had any need for him.

Comprehension then moved aside for rage to take over.

Fucking Russian bastard had more than deserved that punch. Hell, Gilbert would have given him a few more if it had not been for airport security. The security personnel had moved in quickly to separate the two boys and then questioned them for a bit before letting them go with a stern warning.

Like he cared.

The taxi ride back home had cost him a minor fortune, but it was better than going home with that fucking bastard who still had the gall to offer him a ride _and _with that stupid smile, nonetheless.

Like he needed that Russian freak.

Ludwig had tried to talk to him when he got home, but the only thing he had admitted was breaking up with that Russian bastard, knowing that the last thing he needed was to burden his younger brother with his personal crap. Sure, he had no doubt that Ludwig meant well, but his younger brother was so prim and proper, the kid would not be able to deal with it anyway. It was better for him just to go to his study group instead of fretting over his brother.

Fuck all this shit.

Hours later Ludwig came home and then promptly went to check up on him; when he heard the door open he closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep, not in the mood for any conversation. He heard his brother move around a bit, probably shuffling his feet in a mixture of confusion and concern. Then he sensed Ludwig moving closer to the bed to draw the covers over him, tucking him in with an awkward gentleness, before the younger boy turned off the lights and left the room.

Fuck all this stupid, _sappy_ shit. He did not need any of it.

Oh screw it, he was still awesome all by his lonesome, wasn't he?

He did not need anyone. Served him right for thinking otherwise. Yeah, being alone was a whole lot more fun, he kept repeating to himself, hoping that it would lull him to sleep like usual.

It was not until the wee hours of the morning did Gilbert finally fall asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 12**

Francis was puzzled. Gilbert was not in school; he did not reply to any of Francis' messages, and when Francis asked Ivan on his whereabouts, the Russian merely shrugged and turned away without a word of reply. Strange, but the whole school had pretty much decided that Ivan was not exactly normal.

When Francis met Antonio for lunch at the cafeteria and asked about Gilbert, the other senior had no idea what happened to their friend either. It was quite a surprise that Ludwig later approached their table – usually the younger Beilschmidt kept a distance from them on the grounds of avoiding future migraines – and Francis took the opportunity to ask about the boy's older brother. Did Gilbert catch a cold or something?

"No, he's not ill. It's just that, well, he... isn't feeling too good."

"Ludwig, what do you mean? He's not ill, but he's not feeling too good?" Francis repeated, confused. "So is he ill or not?"

"He's not!"

"Then why isn't he here?"

"I, I – uh, I didn't have the heart to wake him up this morning for school," Ludwig answered, tugging his collar slightly.

Francis blinked. Ludwig actually letting Gilbert play truant? "What happened?" he asked, now serious.

Ludwig looked even more uncomfortable. "I'm not sure if he wants anyone else to know...."

"What? Ludwig, what happened?"

"He said that he and Ivan broke up."

"What? Gilbert and Ivan broke up?" Antonio repeated loudly in shock, and in turn startling practically half of the people in the cafeteria, who soon started whispering among themselves.

Francis sighed. "Nicely done, Antonio. So much for not letting anyone else find out."

Antonio cringed, realising what he had just done. "Sorry!"

"Do you know why they broke up?" Francis asked Ludwig.

The younger boy shook his head. "Gilbert wouldn't tell me. I thought it must be serious, since he didn't touch the ice cream in the fridge–"

"Ice cream? No, he doesn't need ice cream. There's only one solution to a messy breakup," Francis said, nodding, "we just need to get him to drink a few beers–"

"You are _not _making my brother consume any alcohol!" Ludwig thundered, making the two seniors wince. Ludwig had a very _loud_ voice.

"What do you expect us to do then?" Antonio asked.

Ludwig turned slightly pink. "Could you... could you come over after school and, uh, you know, talk to him or something?"

"It can't be that bad–"

"I made pancakes for breakfast this morning and he didn't come down," Ludwig interrupted.

Francis gasped. Gilbert refusing to eat Ludwig's pancakes was like him not being able to get a date for the weekend, or Antonio saying no to an offer of a can of tomato juice. Normally whenever Gilbert caught even a whiff of the pancakes, he would drop anything and everything and rush to get to them.

Even the usually obtuse Antonio saw the gravity of the situation. "I suppose we should, you know. See what's with him. He's not really used to dealing with stuff like this."

"It'd be easier if we knew why they broke up in the first place. But since Gilbert's not talking, that only leaves us with Ivan," Francis thought out loud. "I know! You ask him!" he decided, pointing at Antonio.

Antonio gave Francis a look. "Francis, I _know_ I'm kind of dense, but I'm definitely _not_ suicidal."

Francis shrugged. "It was worth a try."

--x--

Talking – or rather, _trying_ to talk to Gilbert did not go too well.

Gilbert had his back turned to Francis when he came in, and had simply given him the finger before telling him to get the hell out unless he felt like having a few cracked ribs or a broken nose. Francis, who was well acquainted with Gilbert's somewhat violent sulks, decided to do as he was told.

Antonio had somewhat better luck when it was his turn. He managed to make Gilbert to actually turn around to look at him, but ruined any opportunities for meaningful conversation when he decided that an upset Gilbert was a rather adorable sight, and said so.

The sight of Antonio thrown out of Gilbert's room was definitely _not_ adorable, but was rather painful to watch.

"Well?" Ludwig asked the two seniors, who were sitting dejectedly on the couch.

Both of them shook their heads.

"He's still sulking," Francis said weakly in defeat, while Antonio merely nodded. The last time they had seen Gilbert this upset was when they were six years old and the class' pet chick had died. Gilbert had moped for _weeks._

"Oh man, "Antonio said with a sigh, "and I thought that Gilbert only agreed to go out with Ivan because of the free food and stuff."

"And_ I _thought Gilbert went out with Ivan because he just liked all the attention Ivan practically poured on him."

"Guess he really liked the guy, huh?" Antonio said softly.

"Yeah."

"I sort of thought Ivan really liked him too. I mean, Ivan heard him sing and honestly said that ridiculous screeching of his was _wonderful._ No way could _anyone_ fake that reaction, right?"

"So what do we do now?" Ludwig asked.

Francis rubbed his temples. "We can't really do anything, I guess. He'll come out of it. Eventually."

"This sucks," Antonio said.

"You guys are useless," Ludwig grumbled.

"No more useless than you," Francis retorted.

Ludwig kicked them out of the house after that.

--x--

It was strange, trying to get used to Gilbert's absence.

Normally the boy would be somewhere near him; several times during the day Ivan had turned to smile at him or just to say something to make him grumble, but the Russian had found no one by his side, and only then remembered what happened yesterday at the airport.

Gilbert did not show up at school today. Or perhaps he was present, but he was avoiding Ivan. He supposed he could not blame his _ex-boyfriend_ – he felt a rather strange emptiness in his chest, using the term – after yesterday's events. At any rate, he was somewhat glad that Gilbert was _not_ around. He gingerly rubbed his left jaw; the other boy had a rather mean right hook. He had spent the whole night with an ice pack on his face in order to make the swelling go down. If Gilbert ran into him again, Ivan was sure that he would expect a few more punches heading his way.

And to think that this all started with an e-mail correspondence with his younger sister.

Natalia had written faithfully to him at least once a day after he left home, sometimes even several times a day, asking about his daily life and his general well-being. Ivan had dutifully replied to every one of those e-mails; after all, Natalia was still his beloved little sister, even if she had an unhealthy obsession with him.

He supposed that his mistake was to admit in one of those e-mails that he still hardly made any friends in his new school. There was a flurry of e-mails after that from his younger sister, repeatedly asking him that if he needed someone – namely her – to go there.

He respectfully declined her offers; even though he was still a loner in school, he still found the peace and solitude in his new environment more than welcome. All that would be ruined if Natalia made good on her offers to come and keep her beloved brother company, for he must be really lonely there in a foreign land, yes?

He had replied that he was not lonely at all, but enjoyed his life here, and Natalia need not worry. He had no clue what possessed him to think that it was a good idea in the first place, but he had told her that the reason he was not lonely at all was while he had not made many friends, he had found someone special, hoping that would be enough to forestall Natalia's intentions to come and stay with him.

Natalia had _not _believed him; she had insisted that no one could be as special as her, to which he had foolishly replied stating that particular someone was in fact, almost like her.

Again, she had not believed him, finally stating in one of her e-mails that she was making plans to come and see this special individual her brother claimed was so like herself, likely intent on calling off his bluff. And then of course, stay with him.

_That _sent him into a state of panic and resulted in a frantic formulation of a plan in his mind. Once he had one, he had asked their elder sister to stall Natalia for as long as she could, while he carried out his scheme to convince his younger sibling to leave after her visit.

Then he had followed his plan carefully, executing each meticulously-planned stage down to the tiniest detail. The first stage, finding a candidate, was successfully achieved due to a massive stroke of luck; he had saved quite an amount of time scouting for one, thanks to that overheard conversation between Antonio and Francis and that one name he heard mentioned.

Gilbert. Gilbert Beilschmidt.

That pale, pale blonde hair of his, almost a blinding silver, and those interesting eyes. His rather comely features (provided he was not scowling, yes?), once Ivan had a good look up close. Like he had said to Natalia in his e-mails about his then-fictional special individual; in a way so like her, and yet also like him. If that combination was not special, Ivan would_ hit_ anyone who would insist otherwise.

Like he thought then, for him to run into Gilbert in the corridor like that, and for the other boy to actually recognise him, was a sign. If he had to express such events into a single word, perhaps he would have called it destiny.

The second stage, courting Gilbert, had gone better than he had expected due to Gilbert's own surprising willingness to go out with him on that first date, and then to try and pursue a relationship. He had been absolutely delighted when the other boy had agreed to his proposal; he had calculated that he had roughly a week to pursue Gilbert, but he achieved his goal in just two days.

That had allowed him to concentrate more on the third stage of his plan, namely, making Gilbert to trust him, to warm up to him. Those websites on dating certainly helped him a bit, but there were occasions where Gilbert simply confounded him. It took him quite a while to realise that not all the advice he read on those websites were quite applicable to his boyfriend – the pet names for instance, since Gilbert hated them – but he still liked to persist in them even though he knew they did not really work, since Gilbert was just so fun to tease.

The other boy was simply adorable when he was annoyed; he would start with a glare, then a scowl, and then make a snappy remark or even perhaps a rude word or two, his cheeks flushing slightly. Ivan would then enjoy teasing him even more then, since that lower lip of his would start quivering and then jut out ever so slightly in a stubborn pout, before he would start grumbling in German.

If Gilbert was adorable when annoyed, he was alluring when he sulked. It took quite a bit of Ivan's self-control to prevent himself from kissing that pouty lower lip, and then more, whenever Gilbert was in one of his sulks. True, the other boy lacked experience, but that only added to his charm.

Still, even though Gilbert lacked experience, he was still more than willing to experiment. Ivan had been surprised when Gilbert took charge of the situation that time in the janitor's storage room, especially when it had taken him a while just to make Gilbert comfortable with some minor displays of affection. But then again, Gilbert had been full of surprises from the very beginning.

Even with Gilbert finally accepting some of Ivan's gestures of affection towards him in public, Natalia had not been fully convinced of their relationship. Understandable, since Gilbert had bristled at some of the more 'not awesome' stuff Ivan did in his final stage of his plan. Especially since she knew that Ivan had several times in the past, 'persuaded' some of their cousins into doing things for him against their will.

Since Natalia still wavered between leaving for home, or staying with him, he had been forced to come up with another, almost desperate addition to his scheme.

That final act of near desperation was what finally convinced Natalia that Gilbert's affections for him were in fact, genuine. It took a while to persuade his sister to prepare a special dinner that day; he knew that Natalia would put hours into preparing the meal in the kitchen to ensure that it would turn out perfectly for her beloved brother. With Mr. Winter out to attend some business meeting, it had been easy to convince Gilbert that they finally had some time to themselves, with no annoying younger siblings to interrupt them. And of course, Natalia would definitely leave the kitchen to investigate the noise in the living room, wouldn't she?

He had felt a little guilty manipulating Gilbert into a somewhat lustful craze then – but it was worth it... yes? Gilbert's... _enthusiasm_ certainly convinced Natalia that their relationship was one of mutual willingness, mutual affection, and more. And at the airport, Natalia seemed to have accepted Gilbert's place in her brother's life. She had talked to him in Russian, so Gilbert had not understood their conversation; she wished them both well, even though rather reluctantly.

Ivan sighed.

It was almost a shame, really, for their relationship to come to an end.

He had honestly thought that Gilbert was indeed, rather special.

--x--

Special.

Natalia had told him that Ivan thought he was special, and that her brother genuinely cared for him. The proof? Ivan had let him wear some stupid scarf that even she never got to wear.

Yeah right. He had tossed that scarf to Blackie, who was more than happy to get another chew toy.

Special. _Hah._

He could not deny the fact that he was feeling less awesome.

However, he was not going to bawl his eyes out, or wander around in rain without an umbrella like some over-acting idiot in a bad romance film, or even stay lying in bed like a freaking dying swan. He had quite enough of that sappy shit yesterday, staying curled up in bed for the whole day, ignoring his friends' and his brother's attempts to talk to him.

He was Gilbert Beilschmidt, damn it, and Gilbert Beilschmidt was the very personification of awesome. And awesomeness _kicked_ _ass._

He should be out there, kicking some Russian ass to be precise! Maybe Ludwig was right, and that violence hardly solved anything, but he knew it would make him feel a whole lot better.

So why the hell not?

Gilbert grabbed his jacket and stormed out of the house.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme. Almost done with this fic - just one more part to go.

* * *

**That's What You Get: Chapter 13**

Gilbert had not shown up for school today either.

Ivan could not help but worry. He had tried detaching himself – one particular website had suggested that technique – but it was simply not working; he could not help wondering if Gilbert were all right.

No, he could not be all right, breakups were painful, yes? Ivan was feeling more than just slightly awful himself.

Ivan wanted to ask Gilbert's friends on the plight of his ex-boyfriend – ugh, how he _hated_ to use the term, it made him feel like he stabbed himself in the heart with one of Natalia's knives – but Antonio and Francis were avoiding him. Even Arthur, who generally treated everyone (except for Francis) with a degree of civility, was cold towards him, giving him only a curt nod before leaving, not giving him a chance to ask how Gilbert was doing.

Should he call or even text Gilbert? No, that would not work.

Gilbert was the one who wanted it this way, Ivan reminded himself.

He was probably fine, even though Ivan was not.

--x--

Ivan decided to spend some time in the library after school, thinking that he needed to look up a few things. Hours later, he sighed in defeat and finally logged out of the terminal.

Why, he wondered, were there _hundreds _of websites on coping with messy breakups (and for some reason he could not understand, they kept recommending the consumption of vast amounts of ice cream and strange movie marathons), but there was very little advice on the subject of getting back together? Perhaps such things were not done here?

Stupid, _stupid_ local dating practices.

--x--

"Where the hell is that Russian bastard?" Gilbert growled, sitting on the porch. He had arrived at the Winter residence quite a while ago, fully intent on kicking Ivan's ass from here to Christmas, but the Russian had the cheek not to be at home.

Maybe he went somewhere after school? Perhaps the gelato parlour, since he knew Ivan had taken a liking to the place after the first time they went there – shit, he should _not_ be thinking of crap like that right now. He was supposed to be _furious._

Maybe Ivan was scared? Yeah, that had to be it. Fucking bastard was scared.

This theory was disproved however, when Ivan walked into view. "Gilbert?" the Russian said in surprise, and that bastard had the _nerve_ to smile–

Gilbert immediately lunged for him with one clenched fist.

--x--

Ivan winced. He had been surprised when he found Gilbert waiting for him at the front porch, but surprise turned to panic when Gilbert charged at him with undisguised homicidal intent.

He discovered that Gilbert not only had a mean right hook, his left was pretty good as well. He had taken one very nasty blow to his cheek and barely dodged a few more before he managed to somehow pin Gilbert to the ground, using his superior weight to keep Gilbert in place. Gilbert struggled beneath the Russian, swearing viciously as he tried to wrench his hands free from Ivan's firm hold.

"I'm sorry," Ivan said once he was sure Gilbert was not going anywhere. He was not sure what to say, and that seemed to be a good start.

"You're _sorry?" _Gilbert hissed. "Fuck you."

Maybe not. Oh forget it, Ivan told himself, it did not matter anymore. Still.... "I don't understand."

"What the hell do you mean, you don't understand? You stupid fuck, I can't believe I was starting to really like you–" Gilbert blurted, then immediately winced, regretting his words.

Ivan stared at the boy lying underneath him. "What?" Not waiting for an answer, since Ivan was almost positive of what he just heard, he said, "B-but you always got mad at me whenever I try and do boyfriend stuff with you!"

"I told you, I hate doing that embarrassing sappy shit in public!"

"But what about that time at my house?" Granted, Ivan had planned the whole thing that day, but Gilbert had not wanted to continue then, even though they could have gone up to his room for some privacy. _He_ had _really_ wanted to carry on, but Gilbert only got mad at him. He pointed this out, then winced when Gilbert yelled at him some more.

"What the hell? Who _doesn't_ freak out if someone's kid sister's watching them while they're busy trying to screw each other? Especially when she's got a thing for knives and might end up stabbing someone! Shit, I knew you were weird, but not this–"

Since Ivan thought Gilbert was just so cute – no, forget cute – he was_ irresistible,_ with his hair in disarray, cheeks flushed and eyes flashing in rage, and his hands pleasingly warm compared to the Russian's cooler ones, Ivan went ahead and did it: he shut Gilbert up with a kiss. To his pleasant surprise, Gilbert seemed to kiss back for a while before the platinum blond jerked away, remembering that he was supposed to be furious at the Russian.

"What – what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Kissing your hurts better?" Ivan said softly.

"Like hell you are," Gilbert spat, and tried to headbutt him. Ivan promptly pulled back a little, putting himself out of reach. "After that shit you did to me? You just used me to get rid of your kid sister!"

"Only at first," Ivan admitted softly.

"Yeah right."

"No, listen. I admit, I first went out with you thinking that if Natalia could see that I have a boyfriend, she would leave me alone, yes? But after a while, I-I realised that I _didn't_ want to have you as a pretend-boyfriend. I wanted you as a _real_ one. You were the only one at school who wasn't scared of me, yes? You even beat people up for me. No one has ever done anything like that for me before. And I could talk to you about anything. I liked you a lot."

Gilbert glared at him. "Sure, you liked me so much you decided to say that we didn't need to see each other anymore."

"But _you_ didn't say _anything_ after all this time!" Ivan wailed, almost in tears. "And all those websites said it was better to dump the other person first rather than being the one who got dumped–"

"Listen here you idiot, _I'm _the one who dumped _you,_ with a punch to the face – wait, what websites? No, screw that, what the fuck is _this shit about me not saying anything?"_

Ivan managed a passable imitation of Gilbert's pout. "It's been a month. And you never said anything."

Gilbert stared at him in a mix of rage and confusion. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"That day at the music store? Remember?" Ivan insisted. "I asked you if it were all right if we tried this going out thing for a month, yes? And if you didn't like how it was going, I would just leave you alone and pretend this whole thing never happened."

Gilbert blinked, finally comprehending. "That's got to be the most _fuckingly stupid_–"

"It's not stupid!" Ivan whined. "I waited and _waited _for you to say something, _anything,_ during that last week! But you didn't, and you just kept calling me a weird Russian freak and got angry at me a lot! And then we had that fight the day before Natalia went home and the next day you were still upset with me – and _that_ day was the final day, so I thought you _wanted_ to call it off!"

Gilbert stared at Ivan for a very long time before he sighed and let his body go limp in exasperation. "I don't fucking believe this," he muttered, "you're serious."

Ivan decided that it was probably quite safe to let go of Gilbert's hands for now, so he slowly pushed himself up, careful to put most of his weight on his knees as he straddled the other boy. He bit his lip, trying to find his voice. When he could finally speak, his voice was barely louder than a whisper, and was more than just a little unsteady. "I never wanted to – to break up with you, yes? That day when I said maybe we don't need to see each other anymore, I-I was hoping that you would say that no, you still wanted to see me. But you didn't. You punched me instead, and I thought that was your answer. So...." He could not finish, since he did not know how, so he just sat still, twiddling his thumbs.

"D–don't you _dare _start trying to make me feel guilty–"

He sniffed piteously and blinked rapidly, trying to clear the moistness in his eyes.

Gilbert groaned and covered his face with one hand. "Has it occurred to that stupid head of yours," he said, his voice growing louder and louder as he continued, "the reason I _never_ said anything after your stupid one-month-deadline was because I never had any problems with the whole thing, you idiot! I didn't even remember that we had a deadline! Besides, I–" Gilbert then turned bright red and mumbled something Ivan could not quite hear.

"Gilbert? What did you say?"

"I said," Gilbert growled, turning even redder, "if I never liked you, I wouldn't have sucked you off, you fucking moron!"

Ivan ceased his thumb-twiddling. "Oh." He blinked. _"Oh,"_ he repeated, then beamed.

Gilbert began calling him what he was pretty sure was a bunch of very rude German names. How he missed hearing those!

"We have been rather silly about this, yes?" he said, interrupting Gilbert's tirade.

"No, just _you._ Now let me up so I can punch you a few more times for being a fucking idiot on top of being a fucking jerk!"

"I don't want to!" Ivan singsonged, beaming, before he plopped himself down on Gilbert, who let out a gasp at the sudden increase of weight on top of him.

"Ivan! I'm fucking serious, get off me _right_ _now_ or–"

"But it feels so nice like this!" Ivan declared, enjoying the feel of Gilbert's warm body pressed close against him. "I do not want to get up! Why do you insist–"

"Because I'm lying on a goddamned rock and it's starting to dig a hole in my back, you stupid bipolar freak!" Gilbert snarled, but there was that tell-tale pout and somehow Ivan knew, just_ knew_, that he was to a degree, forgiven. He would have to do some convincing for him to earn a full reconciliation, yes? And he had a fair idea on just how to do that.

Ivan laughed one more time and did get up, pulling Gilbert along with him, but not before kissing Gilbert just to shut him up again. And this time, to the Russian's relief and delight, Gilbert did not pull away.

The last coherent thought Ivan had as he led Gilbert inside the house and into his room was that if Ludwig somehow showed up, Gilbert's little brother or no, he was going to kill the boy himself because he would not tolerate any more interruptions. He tripped Gilbert, who landed on the bed with a soft exclamation of surprise, and he simply followed suit.

--x--

"You know what you're doing, right?"

Ivan nearly giggled. Rather late for Gilbert to ask that question, considering that both of them had gotten rid of their clothing and Ivan had Gilbert deliciously pinned down in bed. The bravado Ivan saw in his boyfriend in their previous – and interrupted – attempts was absent, in its place obvious nervousness and hesitation. "In theory, yes?" he answered.

Gilbert froze and the look on his face could only be described as one of sheer panic.

"Don't worry," Ivan said, chuckling as he ran his hand in Gilbert's hair, "we'll be fine, yes?"

Gilbert snorted and pulled Ivan down to kiss him rather hungrily. "This better turn out good or I swear to god I'm going to start punching you again," he muttered when their lips parted.

Ivan wondered if that were an actual threat. With Gilbert, almost anything was possible. "I'll do my best, yes?" he answered, and set to work, taking cues from Gilbert's reactions. His boyfriend had a very clear way of signalling where he did not like to be touched or caressed, by way of a deep growl and if Ivan failed to get the hint, it was followed by a quick smack to the head. And if Gilbert really liked whatever Ivan was doing, the Russian was awarded with a rather loud moan and a bite or two on his neck, a gesture that made his toes curl. Ivan then reached for the lubricant (he had prayed that neither Natalia nor Mr. Winter found that tube he hid under his pillow) and he felt Gilbert tense a little when he parted the other boy's legs, and then clumsily began applying some of it, but he was quite surprised at Gilbert's reaction when he started to probe with a finger.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Gilbert blurted, reflexively pushing Ivan away.

Wasn't it obvious? Ivan actually giggled this time. "Having sex?" he answered. When Gilbert's eyes flashed in anger he promptly kissed his boyfriend; the distraction worked, and quite likely saved him from getting another punch to the face. Still, even though Gilbert returned the kiss with almost equal fervour, the other boy was still rather tense. Not good, yes?

"Relax," he said softly, sliding one hand behind Gilbert and then rubbing soothing circles on the small of Gilbert's back, while his other hand resumed prepping his boyfriend, going more slowly this time. It seemed to work after a while; Gilbert's hands, which had an iron grip on his shoulder and arm, slowly loosened their hold, while Gilbert's eyes slowly closed and soon the platinum blond was panting softly in time to Ivan's probing finger.

Deciding that Gilbert was now used to one finger in him, Ivan inserted another, and after a few more minutes, added a third, all the while careful to keep Gilbert occupied, alternating between kissing him and stroking him. When Ivan decided that Gilbert was probably quite ready – he had better be, since Ivan did not think he could not wait any longer – the Russian removed his fingers and with one smooth gesture, slid himself in.

Gilbert threw his head back and made a loud gasp of pain, while his hands nearly dug holes in Ivan's shoulders and back.

_"Зайчик?"_ Ivan said worriedly as he tried to calm the trembling body in his arms. "Does it hurt too much–"

"Fuck, this looked easier in West's porn DVDs!" Gilbert suddenly blurted, and Ivan nearly broke out in hysterics. He clamped down his urge to laugh and promptly dove for a kiss to prevent himself from losing the mood. Thankfully Gilbert responded with great enthusiasm; the other boy probably figured that he needed something to distract himself from the unfamiliar and uncomfortable sensation he was experiencing.

When Ivan judged that Gilbert was relaxed enough, he started to move, slowly at first, to give time for Gilbert to adjust, and then faster and faster as Gilbert cried out and clung to him tightly, legs hooked around his waist and thighs, and it was not long before Gilbert came with a loud groan, Ivan following his example some moments after. The Russian retained enough sense to stop himself from collapsing on top of Gilbert and burdening the more slender boy with his weight and instead, rolled over so that Gilbert rested on him.

"So are you going to punch me?" Ivan asked some time later, smirking slightly as he enjoyed the feeling of Gilbert's chest rising and falling against his own.

Gilbert snorted and flicked Ivan on the forehead with his finger. "There," he said, then quickly added when Ivan put on a hurt look, "it was all right, I guess." He turned redder, something that Ivan had thought was impossible. "You – uh, you could do better next time," he mumbled.

Ivan shrugged, and then beamed. "Okay!"

Gilbert's eyes widened. "Hey wait, I didn't mean right now – _mmmph."_

--x--

When Francis answered the call, Ludwig did not bother with any pleasantries and went straight to the point. "Is my brother with you?"

Francis was slightly alarmed at the obvious note of panic in Ludwig's voice. "No, he's not. Why?"

"Gilbert wasn't home when I got back from school. It's this late and he's _still_ not home. I have no idea where he's gone, and he's not answering any of my calls or messages."

"Ludwig, calm down. He's probably just off sulking somewhere–"

"Francis," Ludwig interrupted in exasperation, "this is _Gilbert_ we're talking about!"

"–or more likely, off doing something really crazy. You're right. Just keep calm, okay? I'll be right there." He ended the call and quickly texted Antonio, asking his friend to meet him at the Beilschmidt residence.

Antonio was already there when he arrived, his friend looking almost as worried as Ludwig. "I asked Arthur if Gilbert was over at his place. He wasn't," Antonio said.

"I checked all the usual places," Francis said, "but no luck either."

"Try texting him, Francis. Maybe he'll answer your message."

--x--

Gilbert was fast asleep, his head pillowed on Ivan's arm while his hand was resting lightly on Ivan's chest. Ivan smiled and tapped his _boyfriend_ – oh, how he felt so good to use that term again and he intended to make sure Gilbert stayed that way this time, and to _hell _with what those websites said – lightly on the nose. Gilbert's response was to wrinkle his nose before he buried his face in Ivan's shoulder, mumbling something incoherent.

Ivan resisted the urge to chuckle. Gilbert was so _cute._ Ivan was about to close his eyes and go to sleep himself, with Gilbert in his arms, when something on the floor caught his attention. Why was Gilbert's jeans pocket glowing?

Careful not to wake his boyfriend, Ivan eased himself off the bed and reached down to retrieve the pair of jeans from the messy pile of clothing – his and Gilbert's – on the floor. He checked the pocket to find that the display on Gilbert's phone was flashing; Gilbert must have put it in silent mode.

Should he wake Gilbert? It may be important, since the display also indicated that Gilbert had not answered to more than a dozen messages. Or perhaps it would be a good idea to check this message first and then decide what to do, yes?

--x--

"Wait, he texted back." Francis then read the reply out loud, "_'This is Ivan. Gilbert is here with me. He's sleeping right now. Please do not worry, yes?'_ Huh. Did they get back together?"

"Ask how is he and if he's okay," Antonio suggested, while Ludwig turned a shade of pink.

Francis quickly typed another message and sent it off; a minute or two passed before his phone beeped. He checked the reply, then blinked a few times before he let out an amused chuckle.

"Well?" Ludwig demanded, practically shaking in rage. "If he's hurt Gilbert, I'm going to–"

_"No! _No, your brother is just fine," Francis hastily reassured the younger boy, who looked as if he were about to storm out the door and go off looking for his brother. "More than fine," he added in an undertone.

"What did Ivan say?" Antonio asked. Not waiting for Francis' answer, Antonio grabbed his phone. "Let's see. _'A little noisy. Also ticklish. Very feisty, but it is more than okay, since I like that very much, yes?'_ So I guess they kissed and made up." Antonio blinked. "Not exactly the answer to what we asked, but at least we know he's all right – _Ludwig?"_

Francis gingerly poked the stock-still and deathly pale younger Beilschmidt with one finger. "Ludwig? Hey, you there?"

"Oh, shit. He's not dead from shock, is he?"


	14. Epilogue

**Author's note: **A de-anon from the LiveJournal kink meme.

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**That's What You Get: Epilogue**

Gilbert was more than happy when school was over. Ivan had walked him home early this morning and Ludwig had practically tackled him down in relief when he stepped inside the house. Then Ludwig spotted Ivan at the front door, and then _he _had to hold his younger brother down to prevent another version of a Beilschmidt vs Braginski bout. (He knew who would have won anyway; Ivan might be his boyfriend, but West was his awesome little brother.)

After Ivan took his leave and a very hasty explanation from Gilbert, Ludwig calmed down a bit and then proceeded to shove his brother into the bathroom, all the time lecturing on how they were going to be late for school if Gilbert did not hurry.

"What do you mean, school?" he had protested. After the night he had – he fought in vain to prevent his cheeks from turning rather red – school was the _last_ thing on his mind. He had wanted to just collapse in bed and catch up on his sleep.

"You've missed too many days already! If you miss any more, you might not graduate!" Ludwig had thundered.

So it was with great reluctance that Gilbert allowed his younger brother to drag him to school – oh heck, he was too tired to put up a fight anyway – and somehow, managed to get through the day even though he felt like a Resident Evil game, except with less guns and more zombies.

He leaned against the wall when he arrived at the usual meeting spot at the gate. Arthur was already there, sitting on the low brick wall and doing his homework as usual. Ivan arrived some minutes later and kissed Gilbert on the cheek in his usual greeting, before asking Gilbert to wait for a bit since the Russian wanted to ask Antonio something.

"So you two did kiss and make up," Arthur observed, tapping the notebook on his lap with his pencil.

Gllbert stiffened. "Who told you?"

Arthur shrugged and pointed at Antonio, who arrived a moment ago and was now in a conversation with Ivan.

Gilbert let out a low growl. If Antonio had opened his big stupid mouth, that most likely meant at least half the school knew. "I'm going to–"

"Kill that idiot, yes yes, where have I heard that before," Arthur interrupted as he put his homework away. "So what is it?"

"Huh?"

"The text message you sent this afternoon? You asked me to wait at the main gate after school, since you needed my help with something. Well?" Arthur patiently reminded him.

"Oh, that." Gilbert hastily rummaged in his backpack and once he was sure Ivan was not looking, he shoved a small plastic bag at Arthur. "Quick, shove it in your bag!"

Arthur was confused, but did as Gilbert asked. "What's in the plastic bag?"

"Ivan's favourite scarf. It's kind of messed up, so I was hoping you could fix it. You did say you were good at sewing and mending stuff."

"Well, it would depend on how bad it's torn–"

"It's not too bad. Blackie just chewed on one end."

Arthur stared at Gilbert, clearly not happy at just having stuffed in his backpack a piece of clothing that was not only mangled but also heavily drooled upon by Ludwig's dog, even if it were wrapped in plastic bag. "Please tell me you had the decency to at least wash the blasted thing."

Gilbert blinked. "Oops?"

Arthur's eyes narrowed. "This is going to _seriously_ cost you, mind."

"Name it."

He smiled and rubbed his hands in glee. "There was this football jersey on eBay I saw the other day–"

"Ah, come on!"

"–or I could just show this to Ivan there." Arthur smiled evilly.

Gilbert groaned in defeat. So much for saving up for his dream drum kit. "Fine! Just have it fixed!"

"Of course."

--x--

"You wanted to ask me something about Gilbert?" Antonio repeated, feeling a little bit puzzled. It was not often that people came to him for advice. Especially advice on Gilbert; now _that_ was even rarer. Francis once had jokingly remarked that learning something useful from the usually obtuse Antonio sort of made you feel horribly defeated somehow. Still, he felt rather pleased that someone would seek his help.

Ivan tapped his lower lip, then started to twiddle his thumbs. "I think he's still mad at me," he admitted.

"Really?" Antonio asked.

"He still calls me an idiot and a moron every three sentences. At least I think he did, since we don't learn those words in German class."

"No, that's just part of Gilbert's forgiving process. He just needs to get even first, which is why all the name-calling and insulting," Antonio explained. "I should know, he's been angry with_ me_ lots of times! And maybe more. Francis says that I just never noticed! Oh, Francis is here, so you can ask him for yourself if you don't believe me."

"I see!" Ivan brightened and then smiled at Francis in greeting, but a moment later he looked just a bit worried. "Does this... forgiving process of his take long?" he asked Antonio.

"Depends on how pissed off he was. In your case, I think it would take at least a week," said Antonio helpfully.

"Oh," Ivan said, not looking forward to a week of constant verbal abuse.

"Bribing him with ice cream sort of helps. He'd rather kill himself than admit it, but he loves the stuff."

_"Oh."_ Ivan beamed. "Thank you."

"No problem!"

--x--

"No."

"Please, Gilbert? I get to call you _птичка._ Or _зайчик."_

"Only because you're the sole person in school who speaks Russian. Now quit it."

"Why not?"

"Because you sure as hell don't look like a baby doll to me!"

"Oh. So that is what _Püppchen_ means?"

Antonio watched as the two boys walked away, Gilbert still glaring and grumbling at Ivan. "Are we sure they're okay now? Because I think Gilbert is kind of angrier than usual." He winced. "I mean, he's been mad at me more than a few times, but I'm pretty sure he's never smacked me on the head before."

Francis squinted at the two boys in the distance. "No, I'm pretty sure they're fine," he said after a quick moment of observation.

"Really?"

"Yeah. See? They're holding hands."

Antonio laughed. "Kind of funny, don't you think?"

"What?"

"All this time we've been saying how pathetic Gilbert is and how he needs to quit bothering us whenever we're out on a date and look – he's the first one among us to actually go steady!"

Francis good-naturedly smacked his friend on the head. "Ah, shut up."

--x--

Two weeks later, Gilbert felt a sense of _déjà vu _when he stood in the arrival hall of the airport, Ivan holding his hand.

"Please tell me that your older sister is _not _as freaky as your kid sister," Gilbert grumbled, staring at the flight board. After the whole thing with Natalia, he was quite understandably hesitant about meeting Ivan's other sister, who was arriving today for a quick visit. Ivan had insisted that he come along to the airport to meet her.

He had also insisted that Gilbert wear _that _scarf; thankfully the Russian had not noticed that the scarf was now about three inches shorter than its original length. Arthur had tried his best, but Blackie was _very_ spirited when it came to chew toys.

"No, she's really sweet! You would like her, I am sure!" Ivan said.

"Yeah, you also said Natalia was hot. So does sweet here mean rampaging berserker or something?"

"I'm serious! She is _nothing_ like Natalia. Ah, I believe her flight has landed. Let's head over to the waiting lounge, yes? Oh, do you want me to get you anything while we wait? Something to eat or drink, maybe?"

"No. And quit treating me like some stupid helpless chick, it makes me feel like throwing up–"

Ivan put on a hurt look.

"–in the nicest possible way, of course," Gilbert finished lamely, while Ivan promptly beamed. "Fine. Coffee."

--x--

"Vanya! You and Natasha were right! He _is_ really pretty!"

Ivan smiled as his older sister cooed over his boyfriend in a mixture of English and Russian. She had a tendency to do that when she was excited and could go on for quite a while. It was good that their first meeting was turning out well, yes?

"And Vanya, he is like a bunny too!"

She was obviously pleased and Gilbert seemed to be enjoying the praise he was getting, since he was blushing.... Wait.

Ivan sighed, while his sibling continued to gush about how cute his boyfriend was. "Gilbert, please look a bit higher."

"Whaaa?"

Ivan squeezed his boyfriend's hand a little more strongly. "Look at her _face,_ Gilbert."

"Huh? Oh yeah, I was!"

Ivan pouted. This was going to be a long week.

_**- The End -**_

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**Additional notes: **

i. This is my first try at a romance fic; and of course, I always turn it into something daft. Trying to write teenage versions of these two was harder than I thought. Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, favourites and PMs. And you should thank the anon who requested this on the meme.

ii. No, I don't even know where the title came from.

iii. The possibility of a sequel? It would depend on whether I can come up with a plot that's half-way decent for once. So don't get your hopes up.


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